Happy international break everyone! Manchester United are off until April 2, when they’ll resume their Premier League season with a critical fixture at Newcastle on April 2.
Their European campaign continues with a visit from Sevilla on April 13, for the first of the two legged UEL quarterfinal tie. In the third and final competition of the season, the FA Cup, they have now reached the semifinals, where they’ll take on Brighton.
In the meantime, we have transfer talk, covering Mason Mount and Romeo Lavia, to do!
As we profiled previously: Mount is a big target of United this summer, as the Blues might look to potentially replace with a name very familiar to United fans- Andres Pereira. Extension negotiations between Mount’s reps and the London club broke down, and his deal expires in the summer of 2024.
As we near that point of 18 months to contract expiration, you know that means- use it or lose it time.
It’s hard to get much value for your money when selling a player inside a year and a half to go on his current deal. That’s because other teams know that the chance to get the player for free is just over a year away.
According to ESPN, United will have face major competition for Mount, from none other than their two biggest rivals- Manchester City and Liverpool.
So we’ll see, as transfers within the proverbial big six are always complicated.
Shifting over to Romeo Lavia now, according to a report by Football Insider, Chelsea, Arsenal and both Manchester clubs are all keen on the Southampton midfielder.
City let him go to the south coast for £10 million last summer as he had only featured once in total for the club. They do have a contractual option to re-sign him for £40m but that doesn’t kick in until 2024.
He might not be available then, as other teams could easily out-bid that amount this summer.
And with Southampton in dead last place, and relegation looking likelier by the week, a sale would be great for both club and player. They’ll badly need money is they get the drop back to the Championship.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now. Follow the website on Twitter and Instagram.