I’ve made an instant impact in Serie A – now Man United & Nottingham Forest both want me for €40m

It’s only been a little over three months since 19-year-old Assane Diao left Spain behind and made the move to Serie A side Como – and already the rumour mill suggests that several Premier League sides could make a summer bid for the talented Senegalese winger.

Manchester United and Nottingham Forest, in particular, have been linked with a move which could set them back as much as €40m (£34.7m). But who is Diao, why has his valued exploded since Como signed him for around £10m over the winter, and is he the kind of player who could make the difference in the hunt for next season’s European places?

How Assane Diao made an instant impact with Como

It’s nearly two years since Diao first hit the headlines with Real Betis, scoring fine goals against Granada and Sparta Prague immediately after making his debut and going on to score an injury-time equaliser against Barcelona. Diao, who had only just turned 18, was an overnight sensation. Rumours quickly emerged linking the Senegalese forward – who was, at the time, a Spanish age-group international who represented his adopted nation up to Under-21 level before switching allegiance to his homeland – with just about every big club under the sun.

Diao’s early progress, however, stalled a little. He would only score four in total across the 2023/24 season and by the time Betis, who had initially resisted attempts to sign him, were getting tempted to cash in on his early promise, Diao had added only two goals in 19 games over the course of the current campaign.

There were some, then, who suspected that Diao’s lightning fast start to his senior career was a bit of a flash in the pan – but not Cesc Fabregàs’ Como, who spent €12m (£10.3m) to bring him to Italy in early January. It’s a move that has paid immediate dividends. Diao has notched up six goals in 14 games already, including a crucial winner against Napoli in February, and has drawn rave reviews not just for his finishing prowess, but for his intelligent movement, work rate and physicality.

Strongly-built at 6’1”, Diao is an undeniable powerful presence down the flanks but also has an instinctive finishing touch that has helped him to score his six goals from just 3.2xG’s worth of chances. Whether that is sustainable is debatable, but there’s no doubt that he has shown flashes of genuine quality – and those flashes have only come thicker and faster since moving to Como.

His head coach Fabregàs has singled out his performances for praise before, even following a disappointing draw with Empoli in which the former Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder criticised the team as a whole – only picking Diao out as the one player who had been above reproach. For his own part, Diao – who has a twin brother who is still on the books at Betis - has admitted that he “didn’t expect” to have such a big impact in Italy so quickly.

“Serie A is difficult and that the initial impact could have been complicated”, he told Gazzetta dello Sport. “Thanks to my teammates and the technical staff, I adapted very well right away.”

Diao doesn’t seem to spend much time putting himself in front of the media, and has always praised Fabregàs and the Como squad as a whole when he has spoken to the press. That, combined with his evident hard work on the field, perhaps paints a picture of a young man with the right attitude to maximise his talents.

Should Manchester United or Nottingham Forest sign Diao?

Diao’s recent resurgence in Serie A has led to an equal uptick in alleged interest by teams from the Premier League and elsewhere. United’s name has cropped up repeatedly, Forest are the subject of recent stories in the Italian press and Fabregàs has, rather unusually, not only hinted that there have been enquiries, but even appeared to confirm Como’s asking price in a recent press conference.

“There is no mentality of speculating and selling, they come here to grow and improve the team,” the Spaniard said. “Obviously, Manchester [United] can come and ask for Diao by offering €40m, but it is not a given that he will leave.”

Which could be interpreted as a hands-off warning of sorts, an inflated price tag added to a comment suggesting that Diao’s immediate future is still with his current club, but could equally be read as an acknowledgement that if bigger, wealthier teams make a bid then Como will take the profit. As for whether Diao is ready to make a difference in the top half of the Premier League, where Nottingham Forest are and Manchester United hope to be again, the sample size is too small to be conclusive – but while there are concerns about whether his scoring record can be sustainable, there are positive signs.

None of Diao’s statistical output leaps off the page save for his finishing record, but there are plenty of good markers – he makes a decent number of successful downfield dribbles, finds space for a touch in the penalty area or down the wings more often than most wingers playing at the top level, and forces a very healthy number of turnovers tracking back or pressing opposing full-backs. There are a couple of red flags – in particular, he only generates 2.31 shooting chances for his team-mates per 90 minutes, which is very low – but the data largely backs up what we see on the tape: that Diao is a physical, hard-working player with good movement, a dynamic capacity to find space and exploit it, and impressive end product.

By way of a side-by-side comparison, Diao is ahead of Anthony Elanga – a player whose output both Forest and United fans will know plenty about – in most key statistical metrics. This season, at least, Diao has scored more often than the Swede, made more successful dribbles, received the ball in the final third more often, beaten an opponent one-on-one more often, and so on. Elanga is already a key player for Forest with a very solid record in the Premier League, and as such the comparison hints that Diao has the tools required to succeed. Whether €40m is too much or not is debatable, and the relatively small sample size we have from Diao’s career makes it hard to be sure how he’ll do, but the potential is there.

Do United need to spend big on young developmental wingers when they have so many pressing needs across the squad? Probably not. Could Forest do with another winger (who can also play as a striker if needed) who has the skill set to line up nicely with Nuno Espirito Santo’s direct playing style? Absolutely. Is Diao a star in the making? You wouldn’t bet against it...