The removals lorry that arrived at Cristiano Ronaldo's Cheshire home on Monday was so large it could not turn into the private road he resided on. There were three attempts made to turn into the steep street and traffic ground to a standstill for an hour.
Eventually, the lorry left without anything loaded. An obstacle with cumbersome movement, no success and a galling departure, it was like one of Ronaldo's last performances for United.
His divorce from United was not amicable but it was mutually beneficial. Ronaldo is unlikely to have bothered clearing his locker at Carrington and it will be a while until United tweet @Cristiano again. The Trafford pub is in need of a lick of paint to cover Ronaldo's mural.
Also read: United staff optimistic about Amad's future
Ronaldo's image will remain on the walls of the No.7 suite inside Old Trafford, a recognition of his greatness that graced the stadium. Time is a great healer and United supporters will sing Ronaldo's name again one day.
Some already see Alejandro Garnacho as the heir apparent. Garnacho's winner at Fulham, on the day it emerged Ronaldo had filed for divorce, was reminiscent of Ronaldo running down the wing and hearing United sing at Craven Cottage in 2007. "Viva Garnacho" has already had an airing at Old Trafford.
But Garnacho only turned 18 in July. The left winger is not yet at the age Ronaldo was when he donned a hallucinogenic Versace jumper to sign his first United contract in August 2003. Ronaldo took three years to be recognised as a world-class winger.
On the opposite flank, Antony cost United seven times as much as the fee Ronaldo fetched in 2021. There is not an obvious alternative on the right flank; Antony's namesake Elanga started there against Fulham and Bruno Fernandes has been banished to the right in recent weeks.
It would be churlish to regard Elanga as a square-peg-in-a-round hole when he is right-footed and a winger. The predilection for 'inverted' wingers is now so staunch there was general bafflement at Gareth Southgate introducing Marcus Rashford there against Iran and the United States. Yet Rashford scored twice against Wales after he switched from left to right.
Erik ten Hag started Rashford on the right at Aston Villa and admitted afterwards it was his weakest role. He is yet to trial Garnacho there and Elanga was back in against Fulham more to defend than attack, with stop-gap right-back Tyrell Malacia easy prey for Willian and Antonee Robinson.
Ten Hag pushed for United to sign Antony as United have a surfeit of right-footed forwards and all of them have played their finest football from the left. Antony's absence for United's last five games left the frontline lopsided as Rashford, Elanga and Fernandes filled in.
Staff at Carrington are encouraged by the left-footed Amad's goalscoring form for Sunderland, where he has poached three goals in his last five games - all of them starts. A well-placed source suggested the 20-year-old needed "a run of 10 games" to demonstrate his potential.
Amad, a £37million investment by United on deadline day in 2020, has not yet played 10 times for his parent club and only started six times on loan at Rangers last season.
It might have been different had he not sustained a thigh injury in late August last year. Amad had provisionally agreed to a season-long loan with Feyenoord, which would have afforded him ample exposure to Ten Hag during his final campaign as Ajax coach. Ten Hag recommended United intervene to sign Malacia partly on the strength of his performance against Ajax and United's summer transfer window was Eredivisie-centric.
Instead, Amad played more often for Neil Wood in the United Under-23s than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick combined before he embarked on an unfulfilling loan north of the border. Ten Hag introduced Amad from the bench in four of United's six pre-season games and he scored against Rayo Vallecano as a 'false nine', a tactic Ten Hag fatefully retained for the opening defeat to Brighton. Amad was in the directors' box.
Amad and Garnacho scored in friendlies with Wrexham and Halifax at Carrington that only drones would have recorded. The unofficial outlook at United is if they loan a talent to Championship they feel they have a chance of returning to the senior squad.
Facundo Pellistri, in contrast, has had two loans with Alaves in La Liga, hardly a conducive warm-up for the Premier League. Unused in a dozen successive fixtures, he missed the win over Fulham to prioritise preparation for the World Cup, where he has been bright in his two appearances for Uruguay. United were so unfussed they named a substitute fewer with two goalkeepers on the bench.
United signed Pellistri on the same day as Amad and he is yet to have a competitive kick. Pellistri was starting at Barrow in the EFL Trophy last month. Garnacho did, too. It is a quirk of the three teenage forwards United recruited from Italy, Spain and Uruguay two years ago that Pellistri is the World Cup participant and the one whose career lies elsewhere.
He has scored in his two halves of first-team football for United against Derby and Liverpool in Bangkok under two different managers, only for both to consequently conclude a loan was advisable. Pellistri was only marooned at United this season due to an ill-timed injury, ironically through a rare cameo in the friendly defeat to Atletico Madrid in Oslo.
Playing for a big club with a sizeable fanbase is character-building for Amad. Sunderland are 15th in the Championship, such a basket case of a league they are only four points off the final Play-off spot nine places above them.
The ownership may change, but it is unrealistic that United would invest heavily in two forwards next year. Unless they unearth a clone of Mohamed Salah, a left-footed goalscorer would have to command top billing, so there is still a vacancy on the right to prop up an attack weighted heavily to the left.
Amad could help carry the load.
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