By @Nicopoleides
Nani entered the biggest stage of football in 2007 when Manchester United and Sporting Lisbon agreed a £14.7M deal for the gifted winger. After an impressive debut season, which peaked on a slippery turf in Moscow, his United career has been similar to a roller-coaster ride.
Nani's peak year
The chorus among many fans seemed to be "give him time", and in the calendar year of 2010 United had seemingly got an extraordinary consistent performer out of an inconsistent teenager. Running down the right wing, he dribbled, scored and assisted goals in game after game, made a major contribution in the title race both in 2009/10 and the subsequent campaign before Christmas. Some might even say he was the third best winger on the planet during that year, counting Messi and Ronaldo as the better ones.
Then Antonio Valencia returned after his horrific injury, which kept the Ecuadorian out for the first half of 2010/11, and Nani was once again forced to play on the left-hand side, as the one-footed Tony V is unable to do so. This did clearly make an impact on Nani's game, as he's a far better and more consistent right winger than a left winger, and the situation is basically back to start, just with an older player. The key question will be whether it's worth it to "acrifice Valencia to get Nani back on track, or was 2010 just a flash in the pan?
Contract issues
Meanwhile, Nani has told the club a desire of a wage rise from his weekly £80.000 to around £120.000, which is reportedly the fee teammate Ashely Young receives every week. Having in mind that the Portuguese in my opinion is a far better player, he might not be wrong with his demands, but as Mr Ferguson disagrees, the path to the exit sign at Old Trafford is very very short.
Additionally Nani doesn't seem to fit into Fergie's harsh and direct way to communicate with players, but rather needs a softer and more friendly approach to perform at his best level, as stated by Braga's manager José Peseiro this autumn.
With all this factors added onto the exipry date of 30.06.2014 on his current contract, an Old Trafford exit in the very near future seems to be unavoidable. The gaffer is certainly not interested on releasing such a brilliant (when in-form) player as a free agent, and as he's not played and not happy, an extending of the deal seems very unlikely at the moment, which basically means a transfer in one of the two next transfer windows.
X-factor
As a fan I will be disappointed to see the showboat leave, as his magnificent skills can spice up any game, and as well it leaves us with one decent (Valencia) and one mediocre (Young) players, and I doubt we'll get enough for Nani to replace him properly. The price tag on an unwanted player obviously drops as well (hence Berbatov for around £5M - bargain!), which makes it even harder to make two eventual deals even-Steven in financial terms.
Personally I'd like to have him as a right winger on a regular basis, but that would leave Antonio Valencia on the bench for almost every game, as he's unable to play on the left due to his limited left foot. Then we'd might enjoy more of Nani's 2010 level on display, which adds an x-factor to United's game which rarley any other player is able to provide.
Super-Nani footage
As we speak, Nani has been out of favour and/or injured since the 7th November when subbed off for Rafael against Braga, and United's number 17 has only played the entire 90 minutes four times this season. So if you've forgotten what he looks like, you might fancy these five minutes of showboating in Nani's back yard mixed with an interview by the football freestyler Jeremy Lynch - enjoy!
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