Luke Matthews


It was announced recently that teenage wizard Adem Ljajic, dubbed the Serbian ‘little Kaka’, will not be joining up with the Manchester United squad in January as originally anticipated. However, confusion surrounds the saga and the football world has gone into overdrive speculating as to just why the English champions would pull the plug on a deal which was agreed nearly a year ago.

To add to the whole debacle both clubs involved have given different reasons for the breakdown of the transfer, a breakdown which means the 18-year-old from Novi Pazar will not be joining fellow Serbs Nemanja Vidic and Zoran Tosic at Old Trafford next month.

Speculation has so far centred on Manchester United’s supposedly cloudy financial situation and there are those who believe the reason for the deal’s collapse is solely due to budget restrictions placed upon Sir Alex Ferguson’s side by the club’s American owners, the Glaziers.

As has widely been reported, United are currently over £600M in the red, and it is evident that the Glaziers are in the process of implementing substantial cuts at the club. It is reported that the Old Trafford side will save around £9M from backing out of the deal for the youngster. The biggest saving of course was the £80M United earned this summer for Cristiano Ronaldo, with only a quarter of that record-breaking fee being re-spent on the likes of Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan.

Over in Serbia, Partizan Belgrade are blaming these supposed monetary constraints for the collapse of the Ljajic deal. Partizan’s president, Dragan Djuric came out to the Serbian media to say that he believed the English club are suffering something of a financial crisis and the deal being called off has nothing to do with Ljajic’s talent on the pitch. United’s U-turn on the youngster is indeed extraordinary when considering that they themselves hailed Ljajic as ‘Serbia’s biggest talent’ when the transfer was originally announced to the press.

The official line from Manchester United is that the player has not improved in the last year as originally expected. Add to this the abundance of young talent at the club, such as Darron Gibson, Tom Cleverley and Davide Petrucci, all of whom are waiting in the wings, and it is clear to see that Ljajic might struggle to continue his development with precious game-time. United also need to take into consideration that Ljajic has not set the Serbian Superliga on fire this season as expected, despite being impressive at times.

This is far from the end for Ljajic however. The Serb has similar attributes to Andres Iniesta such as brilliant vision, a great turn of acceleration while being a comfortable dribbler. However, the 18-year-old can often be knocked off the ball easily due to his small stature and would need to bulk up if he was to ever cope with the physical demands of the Premier League.

It is possible United’s decision has been influenced by Ljajic’s countryman Zoran Tosic’s adaptation to the English game. Ljajic’s transfer to United was part of a £16.3M double swoop which also saw Tosic signed by the Premier League giants. The conditions of the deal however saw Tosic, who was 21 at the time, move immediately to Old Trafford with Ljajic staying at Partizan until January 2010.

Tosic, now 22 has struggled to get into the club’s first-team with only four first team appearances to his name in the past year. There is even talk that the Serb will require another work permit in the not so distant future, something that may prove trickier than the original to acquire. United may even be considering cutting their losses on the left winger because of these work permit issues.

Work permit problems have also been cited as a factor in the failure of the Ljajic deal. Mike Phelan, United’s assistant manager, has stated that the British Home Office were sounded out about the chances of Ljajic being awarded a work permit. The word from the Government department apparently was that it was unlikely that the Serb would be awarded the necessary permit.

None of this should have come as a surprise to the Premier League giants however. There is a strict criteria for footballers when it comes to gaining a work permit to ply their trade in the UK. The rules state that a player must have played in at least 75% of his country’s international matches in the last two years. Furthermore, the country in question must appear in the top 70 of the FIFA World Rankings.

For the young Serb obviously this is not the case; Ljajic is yet to make his full international debut for Serbia. A club can though appeal to the work permit board by making a case that the individual is an exceptional talent who can make a significant contribution to the English game. Most clubs use the special conditional appeal for talented youngsters as it is rare for someone so young to be a regular in their national team however talented they are.

Manchester United themselves have used this appeal process successfully in the past, most notably in the signings of Brazilian brothers Fabio and Rafael da Silva. As Ljajic is a first-team regular for Partizan, and has been since the age of 17, not to mention having the mark of greatness conferred upon him, it would seem that if Sir Alex Ferguson’s club genuinely wanted the player then they would be able to sign him in spite of work permit problems. At the very least they could have put up a fight.

Whatever the future holds for young Adem Ljajic, Partizan Belgrade have let it be known that they are more than happy for the 18-year-old to continue his development in the Serbian capital. The club president has also claimed that Manchester United will live to regret their decision to pull out of the deal. Whether the English club will or won’t, only time will tell.

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