Baleba Brings the Violence United Have Been Missing

There are safe transfers, and then there are the ones that make you lean forward in your chair.

Carlos Baleba is the second kind.

Manchester United are paying £70 million for a 22-year-old midfielder who is still unfinished, still inconsistent, still capable of producing the kind of afternoon that reminds you why Brighton were willing to sell him for less than the £100 million figures being thrown around a year ago. He joins Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos in a completely rebuilt United midfield.

Good.

Because United did not need another safe midfielder.

They needed a bastard.

They needed somebody who could eat up 30 yards of grass before the opposition realized there was a problem. Somebody who could lose the ball, chase the man who took it, smash into him legally enough, win it back and carry the thing forward himself. Somebody with legs, aggression and a little bit of arrogance.

Baleba has all of that.

For too long United’s midfield has looked like a collection of parts from different machines. One player could pass but not run. Another could tackle but not turn. Another needed the game played at a speed more appropriate for Sunday lunch. When the match became stretched, as Premier League matches inevitably do, there were acres of grass and nobody capable of owning them.

Baleba can own them.

That is what makes this signing so exciting. Tielemans gives United control and craft. Santos gives them another young, progressive midfielder who can help dictate the game. Baleba brings the violence. The acceleration. The recovery runs. The ability to take a loose ball in his own half and suddenly turn defense into attack.

Sky’s analysis called out exactly that combination, his athleticism, aggression, ball winning and ability to carry United through midfield.

But nobody should pretend we are buying the finished article.

Baleba is raw. His form dipped last season. His decision making can be loose. There will be matches where he tries to run through three men and discovers, rather abruptly, that they are still standing there. There will be yellow cards, turnovers and moments that make you scream at the television.

That is the price.

United are not paying £70 million for what Carlos Baleba is today. They are paying for what he might become.

And the ceiling is enormous.

There is swagger to him. You can see it when he carries the ball, when he invites pressure, when he decides the shortest route through midfield is directly through the poor bastard standing in front of him. He has spoken about admiring Pogba and Yaya Touré, and you can see traces of both in the ambition of his game.

United desperately need some of that personality.

This summer was about rebuilding the midfield, not patching it. Tielemans. Santos. Now Baleba. Different players, different tools, suddenly a midfield with options, legs and a future.

Will Baleba make mistakes? Absolutely.

Let him.

Give him time. Give him games. Let Carrick sand down the rough edges without sanding away the madness that makes him special.

Because if United get this one right, they have not just bought another midfielder.

They have bought the man who could run the middle of Old Trafford for the next decade.