Whether Di Maria is what this United squad really needs remains to be seen. Nevertheless, the financial details of the transfer serve to indicate that, for once, United have been prepared to put their money where their mouth is and back their manager.
A heavily incentivised package that will net the 26-year-old just over £10m-a-year, it eclipses the money offered to him by mega-rich PSG and indeed the £6.3m-a-year after tax that his representatives told Manchester City they would take when they tried, without success, to draw them into bidding recently.
At United, the deal will put Di Maria second in the financial pecking order, behind Wayne Rooney and just ahead of Robin van Persie. Perhaps that’s right, given that Rooney is captain and Van Persie — for all his talents — is 31 and, unfortunately, rather injury-prone.
