Odion Ighalo’s transfer to boyhood club Manchester United ahead of January's transfer deadline promised to be one of the feel-good stories of 2020.
The striker made little secret of his love for the Red Devils—an authentic love, underpinned by years of dedication and affection for the Manchester heavyweights.
A dream had come true, and despite his advancing years, the forward appeared primed to take the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on English football, having gone out with a whimper during his previous stint with Watford.
During his time with the Hornets, Ighalo had excelled in the second tier, and then immediately took to life in the Premier League after firing the Hertfordshire side to the big time.
However, a significant slump then followed, as the forward began to be neutralised a little too readily by defenders, and Watford fans became increasingly frustrated by his lack of killer touch.
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A return to England—on loan from Shanghai Shenhua—represented an opportunity for Ighalo to write a successful final chapter to his career in one of Europe’s major leagues.
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At first, everything seemed to be going well, as Ighalo enjoyed a superb scoring record in club competitions when called upon by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Strikes came against Derby County, Club Brugge and LASK, and while Ighalo didn’t net in Premier League outings against Chelsea, Everton and former club Watford, it didn’t matter, he was achieving what he had been brought in to do; take the strain from the likes of Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood, and help to compensate for injured Marcus Rashford.
Coronavirus and lockdown changed things, of course, denying Ighalo the chance to build momentum after scoring and assisting away in Austria in a 5-0 victory over LASK.
By the time football was paused, he had scored four and contributed one assist in his previous five games for the Red Devils.
The suspension in play proved costly for Ighalo for several reasons.
Firstly, it allowed Rashford to return from an injury that had initially appeared set to rule him out for the rest of the season, thereby increasing the competition for playing time and reducing the opportunity for Ighalo to make an impact.
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Then, there was the emergence of Greenwood, who offered incisive movement, pace in wide areas and superb finishing to end the season with 10 goals in the Prem and a further five in the Europa League.
The reorganising of the football calendar once the sport resumed also proved costly for Ighalo; with the Europa Leauge conclusion pushed back until after the Prem was concluded, Solskjaer had no need to rotate his squad between the two tournaments.
Fit-again Rashford was paired along with Martial and Greenwood in the Premier League as the Red Devils pressed on to secure top four qualification, and then once that had been wrapped up, the trio were able to focus on the UEL.
United ultimately came up short, but their run to the semi-finals represented a further achievement for Solskjaer during his first full season at the helm.
Intriguingly, and for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, the Norwegian coach also appeared to lose faith in Ighalo in the big games.
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Against Southampton in the league, as United wilted, allowing Michael Obafemi in to score a late equaliser that may have proved costly in the race for the top four, Ighalo wasn’t introduced to freshen up the front line.
Against Leicester City in the top four decider, he was only introduced at the death, with no time to make an impact.
In cup competitions, he was only given an 11-minute run-out against Chelsea in the FA Cup semi-final—by which point the match was beyond the Red Devils—and was just given a few moments at the conclusion of the Sevilla semi-final to try and help United into the Europa League final.
Again, predictably, it was too little, too late.
Few could have expected, when Ighalo scored against Norwich in the FA Cup on June 27, that it would be his last goal of the season for United, who were, at the time, still fighting on three fronts.
That goal equalled a United record that had stood for 95 years, as Ighalo became only the second player in the club’s history to score in his first four competitive starts for the Red Devils.
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Since then, he’s played in eight matches without netting—albeit only playing for more than 12 minutes in one game—and ends the season with only one goal in 11 matches post-lockdown.
It’s a meagre return, and disappointing that Ighalo failed to net in the Premier League all season, and didn’t make a single start in the top flight under Solskjaer.
After 11 goalless substitute appearances in the league, he’d surely be heading for the exit door during the brief offseason had he not already penned a new deal keeping him on loan at Old Trafford until 2021.
There have been rumours of a move to Paris Saint-Germain, although the practicalities of that deal aren’t immediately clear, although both United and Ighalo may well question the wisdom of him sticking around for another six months.
Of course, there will be EFL Cup games, the Champions League group stages, and a few Premier League cameos, but unless there’s a commitment from Solskjaer’s part to play the striker more often—or if Rashford gets injured again—then Ighalo’s loan spell is destined to end in further disappointment.
A transfer that promised so much, and then threatened to deliver—despite the obstacles—is falling very short of its fairytale potential.
