It’s been a busy week at Manchester United. The first team returned to pre-season training on Thursday, on the same day further details over a proposed new stadium were revealed at Old Trafford.
Transfer business is also hotting up. Goalkeeper Karl Darlow and midfielder Andrey Santos are close to signing on the dotted line and Ederson could follow if his medical progresses without a hitch.
United will step up their pre-season work next week and continue to look at strengthening the squad as well, with further signings wanted in midfield and on the left.
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We run weekly question and answer sessions, so click here to submit your questions, and we’ll answer them next week. Here are the answers to some of this week’s questions:
Having missed out on Tchouameni, will we go for Baleba? His playing style complements Kobbie Mainoo as he is more of a defensive midfielder.
It’s been very quiet around Baleba this summer. Although I believe there is still some interest there from United, it’s not a deal they are working on at the moment.
There hasn’t been a natural replacement for Casemiro so far, and I don’t think there will be one. The club aren’t fixated on the idea of signing a defensive midfielder this summer, but instead want technically proficient players who have the mobility and physicality to play in a Premier League midfield.
Andrey Santos and Ederson fit that bill and there is a view that the all-round skillset of the midfield and having two players in a 4-2-3-1 will equate to having a natural holding midfielder. Kobbie Mainoo improved rapidly in that area in the second half of last season.
Will we look to sign a better left-back if we keep Marcus Rashford at the club?
The plan so far has been to sign either a left-back or a left-winger, so I don’t think it will really change if Rashford stays or goes. Patrick Dorgu’s versatility is seen as a strength down the left.
Lewis Hall is the left-back mentioned and he was named in this question. As it stands, the ball is in his court, really. Newcastle don’t need to sell and will be desperate to avoid an exodus of big names, so he would have to try and force his way out.
Will we have enough attacking options if we sell Rashford?
If United do manage to offload Rashford, then I think they will try and use that money to sign a left-winger. We know they like Crysencio Summerville at West Ham and Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye.
Like I mentioned above, options on the left are flexible. United might be forced to wait until late in the window before getting an understanding of Rashford’s situation and what they can get for him.
They have become more open to reintegrating the 28-year-old, and there have been positive talks between the two parties, but I think a departure is still seen as the best option. United coped without Rashford last season, but will play more games this term and they will need more depth now.
Why have United become afraid of buying big-name players?
I’m not sure this is a particularly new development. They could and possibly should have signed Declan Rice before Arsenal did and the decision not to try and sign Harry Kane because they didn’t fancy negotiating with Tottenham was a terrible one.
It’s not so much big-name players that are the issue now. Nobody can say Mateus Fernandes is a big-name player and had Aurelien Tchouameni left Real Madrid, United would have been pushing hard for him.
It’s more about value. United have become more diligent in the transfer market, and that stance can be a difficult one to hold when the prices are only going up.
Why are we finding it so difficult to recruit midfield players?
This fits into the answer above a little as well. United could have signed Fernandes had they committed £85million and the best part of £250,000 a week to the deal, but that doesn’t fit within the budget they had for the deal and would have wrecked the wage structure.
It’s hard to argue against that approach when we’ve seen United be aggressive in the past, only for those deals to fail and the players to prove impossible to shift.
United remain confident they will sign players they want this summer, and they still have options, but obviously, a desire to be a bit stricter with what they pay and more conscious of the finances does mean they will occasionally miss out on players.
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