Manucho will make the last appearance of his loan period with Hull City this weekend at Bolton Wanderers, assuming he is picked at all. One would hope that with the game being an irrefutable win-or-bust occasion, he might start alongside Daniel Cousin up front and give an attacking City midfield two proper targets to aim for.
The awkward, industrious Angolan does seem to divide the opinions of Tigers fans. The main statistic which has to be examined when looking at centre forwards is their goal ratio, and Manucho's isn't good. He got off the mark with the joyous 94th minute winner at Fulham, but has since scored just one more.
Beyond that, if a striker's overall contribution to the team is deemed important enough to make decisions on him, then it fares a lot better for the player. There is little room for doubt about his endeavour and also his willingness to make himself a total nuisance for opposing defenders to deal with - his appearance as a last throw of the dice at Aston Villa proving a recent case in point. Whatever his flaws regarding the introduction of a ball to a net, he causes enough strife to at least make you hope someone else may be able to take advantage.
Manucho suffers from a triple negative. He isn't Fraizer Campbell, he isn't Marlon King and he isn't James Beattie. Of the strikers associated with Hull City's rise and fall who don't belong to the club, Manucho is fourth of four. We tried to get Campbell back in August after his bit of extra quality helped us win promotion, and couldn't get him. We had King, but his temperament and off-pitch influence was deemed undesirable. We knew Beattie was proven and available, but didn't go for him and then watched in horror as he joined Stoke and instantly started to bang in the goals that would contribute vastly to their survival. So, in a last ditch effort to get another centre forward on the payroll before January was out, the cap was held out to Manchester United again and we got Manucho.
He's only made one substitute appearance for his parent club in the Premier League, so why is Manucho still a Manchester United player? He is 26 after all - by that time of life, the production line at Manchester United has long sussed out whether you're cut out to be in their squad or not. He's not a child prodigy, though he sometimes displays the rawness normally associated with a gifted but unfinished kid. There is clearly something Sir Alex Ferguson sees in him and that ought to be good enough for all of us, though if that something amounts to little more than a presence for the commercial arm of the club in Angola, then all of us - Manucho included - can feel we've been had.
The word is that Manucho could be available for £750,000 in the summer. It's a lot of money in most walks of life we have heard of, but not in football - and certainly not to Manchester United. While it's only still recently that Hull City could start to prevent such a fee provoking an involuntary coughing fit, it's small change to Manchester United, thereby suggesting that whatever talent Manucho has, it isn't a talent worth anything to his employers.
The chairman is a fan of Manucho, although his claim that he would be a better long-term acquisition than Beattie last week - prior to Beattie and Stoke coming to the KC and turning us over - takes some beating as the most ill-observed comment of the season. Some would buy Manucho, claiming that work on his game and more of a chance of properly testing first team football would produce a better player. He has skill, a reasonable touch, a good attitude and is unknown enough to induce a level of fear in opponents through his appearance and exuberance, until they realise that he is unlikely to convert many of the chances put his way. But being worth just £750,000 to Manchester United is the equivalent of being of just a five figure value to Hull City - we'd be signing a taller, gawkier version of Ryan France or Nicky Featherstone, essentially. It would be a risk and distinctly underwhelming if he were to pitch up permanently, especially if we survive in this division.
This weekend represents the Manucho swansong as he cannot play against his parent club on the final day of the season, so one assumes he'll be a Manchester United player, back from his loan, on the day they turn up. If, as hoped in these quarters, the United team fielded on the day is a weakened one, with the Premier League title secure and protection of stars for the Champions League final three days later on the agenda, it wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility to see him in red, rather than black and amber. Surely it would be beyond the realms of possibility for him to score against us though - imagine trying to buy him after that!
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