I don’t care how long the rumors go on. I don’t think he’ll go to Manchester United and if he does, I think it will go badly.

Why? Because Sneijder can’t play in 4-4-2.

If you play him in the middle, you put too much pressure on his partner to perform all the defensive duties (because he’s not at all suited to doing much defense work himself). Or else you require the outside midfielders to come inside frequently to provide defensive support in the middle. The first option leaves the midfield in danger of being overrun, plus leaves a big gap between the central midfielders and no good way to connect them and just generally leaves the team  unbalanced and with easy to exploit holes. The second option completely wastes the primary talents of the team’s best outside midfielders, who bring pace, width, and direct running and also requires a complete reworking on the team’s focus on speed on the outside.

If you play Sneijder on the outside, you lose speed on the wings and also put a lot of pressure on the full back, who will be tasked with covering that flank while Sneijder invariably goes on walkabout in the center of the park, instead of covering the outside.

Basically, you have to play him centrally behind a lone striker.

Wayne Rooney can absolutely play that role, but is Danny Welbeck, rising star of the Manchester attack ready to be relegated to the bench? He’s a rising player for England with a good chance of representing his country at the European Championships and he’s worked his way into a starting role for his team. But there’s no room for him if Sneijder is playing, except as a sub or on the flanks. So how long before he starts looking to leave? So in return for getting a 28 going on 29 year old midfielder with 2-3 more years at the top of his game, you will probably lose a rising striker who can be a key player for the next decade.

Sneijder belongs in Italy, where the classic playmaker is still used.