Luis Nani - So long and thanks for all the flips?

In the summer of 2007, around the time Cristiano Ronaldo had begun to display the beginnings of the unstoppable force he has gone on to become, a fellow Portuguese winger, Luis Nani, joined Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon. It was no surprise then, that this new boy from Portugal was immediately compared and contrasted against his established teammate, who had made the exact same switch a few years before. It is a comparison that has haunted Nani for a good part of over 5 years now, and one that has left him visibly more frustrated with every passing day.

After all, which player likes being in the shadow of another, even after the said player has left the club for new pastures on foreign lands? As if that alone were insufficient, Ronaldo is also the blue eyed boy of the Portuguese national team, pushing Nani, and all his other teammates into relative obscurity, whether with his ever changing hairstyle, or with his devilish play. So it is quite understandable why Nani would find himself tossing around at night, scheming up ingenious ways of banishing his hankering demons. However, the answer to whether he has succeeded in doing so varies proportionately to the number of United fans you ask about him. From a misunderstood, under-appreciated hero, to a selfish, wasteful pantomime villain, views of him polarise United fans worldwide nearly like no other at the moment.

So how exactly does one go from scoring screamers, breezing past defenders at will, and providing sumptuous crosses to becoming a forlorn downtrodden figure, with barely a shoulder to cry on? It wouldn’t be unfair to say Nani himself would grasp at straws if he were to ask himself that. A player who has amassed 30 assists in the past two seasons doesn’t often find himself struggling for a spot on the first team, let alone face the stark possibility of being shipped off in a winter transfer window, does he? After all, with good wingers hard to come by, a manager of the shrewdness of Sir Alex Ferguson wouldn’t possibly be considering letting his raw Portuguese gem leave.. or would he?

Truth is, as a sizeable number of United fans would agree, Nani has left the gaffer little choice. Putting the rumored scuffle, and punch thrown against reserves captain Davide Petrucci aside for the moment, Nani has appeared visibly less interested in contributing to United’s play. From being a racehorse a year ago, he has turned into a lame one-trick pony which stubbornly sticks to the only show it knows, irrespective of disturbingly regular failure. A player who used to hug the touchline, and licked his lips at the prospect of beating two defenders at once, now maintains his distance from the byline, and simply cuts in from the wing, allowing the defender to marshal him into impossibly tight spaces which stifle the attack. It is a suicidal move, especially when he clearly sees the sly play of Antonio Valencia bring much reward at his very own club. Even on those rare occasions that he does manage to get past his man on the wide, Nani has sent some ridiculously poor balls into the box this season.

One can chalk up the few poor performances to a dip in form, of course, but one would find it extremely difficult to explain the loss of confidence in him from almost all his teammates. The penalty incident against Galatasaray where he stepped up to the mark, and missed scoring with a feeble attempt, would have done very little to improve his relationship with the other players. The manager himself, post game, was gracious enough to take the blame upon himself for not having fixed a penalty taker before the game, but not before saying Robin van Persie should have taken the penalty, and he didn’t know why Nani took it. Just a few days later, it was apparent for all to see, in that terrible yet scintillating game against Tottenham. With United having pulled one back thanks to Nani stumbling a**-backward into a goal that was much needed, nearly no heartfelt celebrations were seen on the pitch. In fact, Nani himself barely had a smile on his face; something that saw Ronaldo grab the headlines for two weeks, but faded into obscurity for Nani.

And when the rumoured training ground incident is factored in on top of this all, it just seems to fall into place; an actual, plausible explanation for the gloom that pervades Nani’s play today. And thus, while the United faithful have loved every moment of his “show-boating”, especially when he showed up Arsenal players in that cup game, and adored every one of his gravity defying flips, there will be few tears shed if he indeed has to pack his bags and leave. Just another demon to torment this Portuguese dynamite.