Paul Merson had major reservations when Manchester United signed Aaron Wan-Bissaka in 2019 - and he looks to have been proven right.
The Red Devils spent £50million to sign the right-back from Crystal Palace during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's tenure, but three years on and Wan-Bissaka finds himself down the pecking order with Erik ten Hag prepared to sanction his exit. That leaves United no doubt having to accept a huge loss on their investment.
Wan-Bissaka was highly-rated when United spent big to sign him, but the Eagles academy graduate had only enjoyed one full season as a Premier League regular. Merson expressed concerns about his style of play and the adaptations that he would have to make at Old Trafford when the deal was announced.
He said on Sky Sports previously: "I like him, my worry is whenever we show clips of him he's always slide tackling. Now that tells me you're probably out of position, he's also not the greatest going forward. Now you're playing for Man Utd who are going to have 70 per cent of the possession in games.
"It is going to take him time, this is a massive jump. I think players in the Premier League are going to suss this out."
Wan-Bissaka's one-on-one defending has largely been hailed, but as time's gone on it has become less so while his ability on the ball has been cited as a major issue throughout his time at the club. That led to Ralf Rangnick, when he came in last season as interim manager, replacing him with Diogo Dalot.
Solskjaer had long been accused of having his favourites in the United squad, several of whom appeared undroppable which led to heated dressing room debates. Wan-Bissaka was seemingly among those who retained his position when there were calls for United to switch things up.
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The former Palace man is a now among a number of defenders who could leave Manchester in search of regular minutes. Wan-Bissaka has two years left on his deal and has been linked with a return to London.
Eagles boss Patrick Vieira said when quizzed on potentially bringing the player back: "Names are difficult to talk about. We already have a couple of good players down the right who are performing well." Wan-Bissaka has been an unused substitute in both of United's games this term.
United greats Gary Neville and Roy Keane clashed a year ago about whether the right-back was suitable for the club. The former claimed he was "okay" which saw the Irishman respond: "Gary, okay… ‘okay’ is not good enough. ‘Okay’ is fine, but we're talking about winning league titles."
