Yes. Nani is a pain in the butt. He doesn’t listen to coaching and makes a lot of bad decisions when left to his own devices.  A series of howlers against  Liverpool–particularly a ’header’ in his own penalty area which gifted a goal to Dirk Kuyt–are hard to forgive for many of the faithful. Tackling errors, where the Cape Verdean Adonis repeatedly does his best to imitate the worst excesses of Paul Scholes without channeling any of the best, have given away a number of crucial free kicks against opposition.  Indeed, just like the veritable boy who cried wolf one time too many over innocuous or non-existent tackles, when he finally did get carved up by Jamie Carragher’s filed-down studs, many of us thought that he was being a big baby again and laughed. The fans were wrong in that case, but the lad can be a donkey and has brought many of his problems upon himself.

Unlike many truly selfish player, like, say Tevez, Nani has worked hard to learn to speak decent English and make contact with fans. Indeed, I can say I’ve met him and he’s far more of a well-mannered  gentleman than many of his colleagues. Along with the mistimed tackling habits and fits of sensitive pique at the Gaffer  which he’s made the error of leaking to the Portuguese and Spanish press (probably at the behest of his ever manipulative slippery-eel of an agent Jorge Mendes), Nani really can be sublime.  He may not have much of a left foot, but those diagonal runs he makes off the wing provided a number of brilliant killer goals that any number of defences simply could not cope with. The problem, many so-called pundits will tell you, is that these runs are never the organic result of set plays; but, rather, the impish product of the kind of extemporaneous improvisation his teammates are not tooled to cope with.  I say pish-posh! Georgie Best did the same thing all the time. Maybe the difference is that Our Besty never ever even made an attempt at playing defense and Matt Busby never asked. The thing is, Nani has not peaked yet! And if he’s at Real Madrid or Juventus or Inter, they will not expect him to try and play defense.

Sell him? We paid £18M for Nani, so he was no bargain. Still, it’s all relative. £20M paid by Liverpool for Jordan Henderson? King Kenny wa surely coughing up a furball watching his new English investment repeatedly choke in Denmark last week. One more good season and  we’ll get close to Cristiano Ronaldo-type dosh for Nani. Good form and rave reviews will not, unfortunately, help him get along better with Sir Alex. Their relationship seems to be irreparably damaged. But still, even his clear and obvious potential ought to make him worth £35-40M now if Javier Pastore, another unfinished gem, is worth £50m.

Swap him? These swap rumors have been around for a while in the likes of CaughtOffside.com, which is what I call an egg/omelette footie site: Fantasize enough rumors and at least one of them is going to stick!!! Today, however, The Manchester Evening News has joined in the speculation. Now I am wont to believe that Gilly and the Gaffer are indeed getting serious about cutting the somersaulting winger loose.

Nani to Real Madrid for Lass Diarra and Xabi Alono? Why Mourinho wants another winger I don’t know. Cristiano Ronaldo may want Nani to join him in his sandbox, but Angel Di Maria is far more of a mature finished product than Nani. He’ll be benched there a lot, too. We surely do need  a class defensive midfielder, but is Lass Diarra up there with the dynamic likes of Daniele De Rossi? Additionally, Diarra suffers from the onset of Sickle Cell Anemia which is ultimately a fatal idiease n most cases. After taking on Owen Hargreaves with the knowledge of pre-existing  injury problems, it surprises me that Ferguson would allow something similar to happen again. Xabi Alonso–as much as I would love to see Liverpool fans get their knickers in a twist at seeing him in a United kit– is 29-years-old. And what has the Gaffer repeatedly said about older players? (We-ell, except for Berbatov!) He’s brilliant. A superb passer of the ball and would complement Wayne Rooney in midfield far more comfortably than Wesley Sneijder.

Nani to Inter for Wesley Sneijder? Stylistically speaking, it’s going to take a while for the little Dutch master to mesh with Wayne Rooney, but it would ultimately work on the field. Great players find a way! He’s a capricious little bugger, though, and tends to bring up his lovely wife’s shopping habits–You know, saying that she’d be far happier shopping in London or  staying in Milan–than in icky rainy Manchester,  At any rate, he needs to decide soon, Ferguson will not wait till August 31.

Nani to Juventus for Claudio Marchisio and Sebastian Giovinco? I have to say that, although Marchisio’s name has come up a lot, Giovinco’s hasn’t. As Giovinco is supposedly about to be flogged to Parma, I think United ought to step in.  Giovinco is a tiny terror capable of unstoppable dribbling brilliance and exquisite creativity. Claudio Marchisio would be a Manchester United midfielder in the hard-tackling, selfless tradition of Duncan Edwards, Bryan Robson and Roy Keane: A warrior and a star! With two warriors like Vidic and Marchisio on the team Manchester United can take on anybody!

The latter deal with Juventus I would make. The other two, I’m very unsure of.  Nani has been on the Gaffer’s ho-hum list because of how much he whinges like a wee schoolgirl and that howler of a header against Liverpool. Despite moments of sublime brilliance on his part, it’s clear  that he doesn’t listen to instructions and the boss doesn’t trust him. Now that Alexis Sanchez has chosen to join Barcelona and, common sense says, also  do a lot of time on the bench, maybe the Gaffer  will choose to give him one more go-around. Watching Nani in training last Summer, I couln’t help but notice just how plain physically powerful he is. Experimenting with him as an old-fashioned centre-forward might not be a ba idea, either.