Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho has made no secret about the fact that he wants to sign two more players this summer, and the main position of need is holding midfielder. It doesn’t appear that AS Roma man Radja Nainggolan will be an option though with reports coming out of Italy that a contract extension to keep the player in the capital is being finalized.
“Nainggolan and Manolas will stay with us, they are not moving from Roma,” Roma president James Pallotta said on Friday with his club in the United States for a preseason tour.
A report by Tuttosport quotes Palotta responding to a query about the contract extension.
“You saw, he laughed, Yes, [it’s done],” Palotta answered, claiming an agreement has been reached.
Thus it appears that all roads lead to remaining in Rome despite United, Inter Milan, Chelsea, and other clubs pursuing Nainggolan. The 29-year-old Belgian further fueled transfer speculation by posting an Instagram on holiday last month which captioned all the thinking he’s been doing. Thinking about what specifically? His future?
Who knows but articles on his IG posting were just another instance of media overanalyzing players social media activity and reading way too much into it.
With Nainggolan staying the eternal city, United are still looking at Tottenham Hotspur’s Eric Dier and Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic. Both deals are very difficult though as Spurs don’t want to sell Dier and Stamford Bridge isn’t very keen on doing business with United after they swooped in and grabbed their primary summer transfer window target Romelu Lukaku.
United Manager Jose Mourinho is seeking a midfield anchor, as a long term replacement to Michael Carrick, thus allowing Paul Pogba to press forward more often, a role to which he is better suited and thus get much more ROI out of the world’s most expensive player.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV.
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