Manchester United could lose midfielder Juan Mata for nothing this summer, as the club has yet to activate his 12-month contract extension. His contract ends at the end of the year, with a club option to extend another year, but apparently that has not been exercised.
According to The Times of London, Mata is now free to negotiate with foreign teams ahead of a potential transfer move in the summer. The report adds that United will likely lock him up for the long term, but it does boggle the mind right now, why are they dragging their feet on this?
Top 10 MUFC appearance makers, currently at the club
Michael Carrick 460
Antonio Valencia 312
David de Gea 296
Chris Smalling 268
Phil Jones 184
Ashley Young 183
Juan Mata 169
Ander Herrera 148
Marouane Fellaini 146
Daley Blind 139— Mubarak (@mubs71) January 9, 2018
Juan Mata has been extremely solid lately, and he’s definitely become an integral part of what the team is about under Jose Mourinho.
He’s also definitely one of the beautiful game’s good guys, given all the philanthropy he does. His Common Goal charity project has caught on worldwide. Mata came over from Chelsea in January of 2014, breaking the club transfer fee record (£37.1m) at the time.
Although that figure now seems “cute” compared to what was spent on Angel Di Maria, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku since. If the Spaniard does end up leaving (it’s not likely, but it’s still very possible), then United could see a true makeover in attacking midfield with Marouane Fellaini and Henrikh Mkhitaryan also potentially on the way out.
Inter Milan and Valencia are reportedly interested in acquiring the 29-year-old Spaniard, who’s started the last seven Premier League games, and impressed in each outing.
Top 10 #MUFC goalscorers currently at the club
Juan Mata 39
Anthony Martial 34
Zlatan Ibrahimovic 29
Marcus Rashford 28
Michael Carrick 24
Antonio Valencia 23
Jesse Lingard 22
Marouane Fellaini 19
Romelu Lukaku 16
Ashley Young 16 pic.twitter.com/vHWg7z5cEd— @ManUtd_HQ (@ManUtd_HQ) January 11, 2018
Obviously, when it comes to transfers, the player himself is quite often the one who holds a lot of sway, and Juan Mata is understood to definitely be interested in wanting to stay.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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