One of the more forthright observations earwiggers heard Ole Gunnar Solskjaer utter during his managerial tenure at Manchester United was that Diogo Dalot "can't defend".
Solskjaer's indiscreet analysis, uttered after the Villarreal winger Arnaut Danjuma gave Dalot a chasing at Old Trafford last season, was hardly a jolt.
The £50million signing of Aaron Wan-Bissaka in Solskjaer's first summer immediately ousted Dalot - bought the previous year by Jose Mourinho. Timothy Fosu-Mensah was resurrected like Lazarus for his first appearance in more than three years even though Dalot was available at Crystal Palace in July 2020 and two months later the Portuguese was loaned to AC Milan.
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Dalot enjoyed an amiable catch-up with Solskjaer during the interval at the San Siro when United faced Milan in the Europa League round-of-16. Dalot started the first leg at Old Trafford, an anodyne experience with the turnstiles locked in the behind-closed-doors era.
Dalot celebrated Simon Kjaer's stoppage-time equaliser against his parent club on 'away' territory. His ultimate loyalty was always to United, though.
Sources say Dalot "never gave up" on reigniting his career in Manchester, despite lacking the confidence of the manager and certain supporters. That belief was not necessarily shared widely among those closest to Dalot. So patent was Solskjaer's reservations about Dalot there was little surprise at the shock selection of Fosu-Mensah.
Two years on, few would have expected Dalot to be one of half-a-dozen certain starters under United's new permanent manager. Since his work placement in Italy, Dalot's fitness has improved markedly from his first two injury-laden years at United, he has become a Portugal international and attracted additional interest from Milan, as well as Borussia Dortmund, Roma and Atletico Madrid.
When United received an enquiry about Dalot earlier in the summer, they informed the interested party the only right-back they would negotiate for is Wan-Bissaka. Sources say Dalot has "won the battle" with Wan-Bissaka, a right-back who cost more than twice the £19m Portuguese.
"I feel like I’m a Man United player," Dalot said in the mixed zone at the Optus Stadium in Perth a fortnight ago. "But obviously work every single day to play. I wanna be ready for the manager, for the club, and every time he needs me I’m gonna be there."
It required Solskjaer's removal for Dalot to establish himself as a regular. He started in 18 of Ralf Rangnick's 24 Premier League games in charge, as well as both FA Cup ties and the Champions League knockout defeat to Atletico. Under Solskjaer, he was limited to 10 league starts in nearly three years.
Brighton on Sunday should represent another milestone in Dalot's United career: an eighth league successive start. His absence from the starting XI would be more of a shock than Fosu-Mensah's inclusion at Selhurst Park.
Dalot's diligence has been sharpened by his year in the fashion capital of Milan. During Christmas in 2020, a number of Serie A players embarked on an ill-advised winter getaway in Dubai and tested positive for Covid upon their return. Dalot eschewed the trip and stayed indoors, training in the gym in his apartment.
He had seen how traumatised Italy was by the first wave of Covid and during the Omicron wave last year that left crippled the Premier League calendar and left the United squad decimated, he often avoided socialising to limit the chance of contracting the virus.
Dalot, who arrived at United in 2018 with a meniscal injury that delayed his debut by a month, last sustained an injury in August 2020. Now 23, he prepared for the new season differently from previous campaigns. Injury-free and without any international commitments, he worked with a personal trainer to increase his velocity and United's fitness coaches have noted Dalot has displayed more agility in pre-season.
Such was Dalot's determination to report at Carrington in peak condition he allocated himself one week's holiday in the Maldives with his girlfriend and still followed his tailored programme on the remote island.
The appointment of Ten Hag was viewed as a "restart" by Dalot, already heartened by United's faith in him. It was reinforced in United's friendlies Ten Hag favours a high line with offensive-minded full-backs and Dalot is more aligned with that approach than the reticent Wan-Bissaka.
Two years ago, Brandon Williams had leapfrogged Dalot in the pecking order, Fosu-Mensah started the 2020-21 season and United recruited full-back Alex Telles on deadline day to offset Dalot's departure. Two of them have left and Williams is expected to leave within the next four weeks, injury permitting.
At the conclusion of United's diabolical 4-0 defeat at Brighton in May, Dalot stood closest to the away end, dumbfounded. He struck a similar pose after the Biblical thrashing at Everton by the same scoreline on Easter Sunday three years earlier. Those who know him say he "loves" United and in those morose moments it was apparent his attachment is genuine.
The day after the 2018-19 season ended, Dalot accompanied his family on their maiden tour of Old Trafford and they stayed out on the terraces to watch a game between club staff and the press. His mother, father and girlfriend followed the team from Bangkok to Melbourne to Perth on the recent pre-season tour.
A family recently bought their young son the new away kit and had "Dalot 20" printed on the shirt, much to the Megastore staff member's surprise. Dalot got wind of the request and expressed his gratitude to the family.
Dalot's pre-season was blemished only by his early departure from Old Trafford during the friendly with Rayo Vallecano on Sunday. Hardly an offence for a player in attendance as a spectator, Ten Hag still took a dim view of his and around nine other teammates' decision to avoid traffic congestion.
"It is discipline," Dalot stressed in Perth. "We need to be ready for that, to be ready to hear things that maybe we don’t want to hear, but I think everything is for the greater good of the team and that’s the most important thing."
Dalot has no problem defending the incumbent manager.
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