A Four Letter Word, Starting With Amad
There’s a particular word that can be used to describe the man with the four-letter name, making the theatre that hasn’t slept sweetly in a number of years dream again. Coincidentally, that word also contains four letters. Amad has that Aura that separates the good players from the elite, and as he walked off the Old Trafford pitch holding the matchday ball for a hattrick, becoming just the fourth player in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era to do so in the Premier League, there is the growing feeling that Manchester United have hold of a superstar.
The right-sided attacking position has been a poisoned chalice at the club since the departure of Antonio Valencia. Many have tried to stake a claim and become the man to rid the position of its demons, but none have succeeded. Antony was tipped to be the one to finally showcase some pure class at United when he signed for £90m back in 2022, but the brute size of the fee itself meant the Brazilian never truly stood a chance.
Welcome To Manchester, Amad:
While United decided to pay £90m on a highly rated young left footer from across the pond in Holland, they sent an Ivorian wonderkid, who was purchased during the reign of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, on loan to Sunderland. Not many will have realised this at the time, but this loan move was to be the making of Amad, with Tony Mowbray in particular someone that should receive a huge amount of credit for the 22-year-old’s ascension to the player he is today.
United’s scouts have never been the issue, and Amad’s signing is one of the best examples of this. The Ivorian had barely made six appearances for Atalanta before the Red’s decided to spend in excess of £30m million on him back in 2021, but there was that feeling that there was more than meets the eye to this signing when it first happened. During a regime like the Glazer’s, who prioritized shirt sales over developing talent, the signing of Amad stuck out like a sore thumb. This was something the club at the time felt they could not pass up, and they may be thanking the good heavens above that they didn’t.
Amad has had to be more patient than most. Many looked at his form at Rangers as a clear indicator that this player was another dud signed by a regime that quite often did not know what they were doing in the market. The 22-year-old struggled for game time in Scotland, making just five appearances in the league, with one of those coming in the shape of a half-time substitution in the Old Firm game against Celtic. Many would have been broken by this loan, but not Amad. The quality has always been there. This is not some purple patch from a player out of the blue; this is a series of events years in the making from a player who was born to play football and create magic while doing it.
“He’s Like Messi”:
The famous quote from Papu Gomez rings through about Amad when speaking about how high the United winger could go. “There are defenders in the first team that sometimes cannot stop him. To stop him in training, we have to kick him! He plays like Messi.” Amad demanded respect from the get-go from seasoned professionals as soon as he stepped foot into training at Atalanta, and he’s continuing to demand respect at Old Trafford. One player he certainly demanded respect from last night was Kyle Walker Peters, who, despite defending admirably throughout the game, couldn’t stop the Amad running riot on his side late on.
Anticipation and excitement are what drag fans from despair to delight. That flicker of electricity in your chest, the quickening of your pulse, the flexing of your hip muscles as you burst out of your chair, ready to pounce on the ground in celebration if the move ends up in the location you’re willing it to go in. That’s the magic Amad creates around the stadium and in the bodies of United fans around the world when he picks up the ball. No fear, no worries, just a player with a dream trying to smash his way past anyone who gets in his way.
The Brighest Star
It’s both poetic and sad that with a shooting star from the past leaving the stratosphere of Old Trafford in the matured shape of Marcus Rashford, a new light to guide the club forward from the darkness has emerged when all seemed lost. Rashford and Amad on the wings would have been a sight to behold, but sometimes change is good, and Marcus will find that out once he leaves the toxicity that surrounds him from the ravenous English media.
One can only hope and pray the media don’t try and take Amad down in a similar fashion. You can feel the respect, humility and admiration the youngster has for football, but as always with players desperate for success at a club like Manchester United, there’s vultures desperate to drag them down as soon as they see the slightest chink in their armour.
8 or 9 years studying journalism just to publish hit pieces on professional footballers on a weekly basis will never make sense to anyone, but the hope is the inevitable targeting won’t affect Amad, and he can continue to grow and shine at the current rate he is, which is propelling him towards superstardome.
Amorim is remaining coy in his praise for his players, but the former Sporting man will be aware of the talent he has on his hands. The manager will have been grateful for Amad’s emergence into the game last night, with the former Sunderland man developing that all-important trait his fellow African from across the way Mohamed Salah has mastered at Liverpool, inevitability.
Salah has mastered the skill of transforming an unfavorable night for his team into one that elicits euphoria in the stadium. That’s what Amad did last night, and it’s a skill he’s continuing to provide as the weeks tick by in this stop-start season for United. That Thanosesque ability to pop up out of nowhere, like a prime Randy Orton, noticing any lapses in concentration from the opposition and punishing them with aplomb.
Of course there will be dips in the coming months from the Ivorian, but he’s shown enough so far midway through the season to make United tie him down to a lucrative contract until 2030. A four-letter word starting with Amad, the prince of Manchester, and the future of Manchester United.
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