How did Liverpool and Man United let Mamadou Sangare slip to Brentford? French pundit hails Ligue 1 star as season’s best buy

French football expert Julien Laurens has questioned how Liverpool and Manchester United did not sign Mamadou Sangare before his move to Brentford this summer.

Sangare signed for Brentford in a club record deal worth around £41m after excelling for Lens in Ligue 1 last season.

The Mali midfielder was named in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year after helping Lens to Champions League qualification, and ranked second in France's top tier for tackles won.

Sangare has made an outstanding start to his career at Brentford and Laurens has admitted he is baffled by the decision of bigger clubs to pass on the midfielder.

Manchester United and Liverpool are understood to have scouted Sangare last season, though neither formalised interest with a move.

Laurens believes both will be regretting that decision and said he can't understand the decision to overlook Sangare, who he has backed to be the Premier League's Signing of the Season.

"The signing of the season will be [Mamadou] Sangare," Laurens said to James Allcott's The Ripple Effect.

"Maybe there's a thing here, where there's a pattern that the big clubs in England think you might not be ready; let's let him go into this mid-platform, and even if we have to spend £80m instead of £50m or £45m, we will do that.

"He was in all of our Ligue 1 Team of the Season. He was outstanding. He was, by far, the best midfielder in Ligue 1 outside of the Paris Saint-Germain midfield.

"It's impossible that a club like Liverpool, who I think would need him badly, or a club like [Manchester] United, all of those top clubs, that their scouts did nothing.

"You only had to go to Lens once and see him play, and you knew there was a player there. I'm not really sure what happened, but well done to Brentford for getting him. The data was incredible."