With the exception of Belarus, South Korea and now, Germany, global football is currently suspended. The Premier League has been given the all clear by the government to restart in June, behind closed doors. United resumed training today, albeit in small groups only.
However, there are still plenty of question marks when it comes to Project Restart, and we’ll learn more as the days go by. Until football actually returns, we still have plenty of transfer news items to cover. So let’s take a spin through the United rumor mill in cyberspace.
Some of the Manchester United players arriving at Carrington for training [men] #MUFC pic.twitter.com/5asr9RXPav
— MUFC Scoop (@MUFCScoop) May 20, 2020
(in the photo above, you can see United players arriving in their expensive, luxury automobiles today)
Time to go back to an old standard in transfer rumors, central defender Kalidou Koulibaly. Reportedly, United are squaring off with their most arch of rivals, Liverpool, in the race to acquire the Napoli star’s signature.
Both United and Liverpool already have a dominant, transfer fee record breaking central defender in Harry Maguire and Virgil van Dijk.
Now imagine how strong the spine of their back line would be if they had Koulibaly to pair with Maguire/VVD? Per Gazetta dello Sport, Man United are now ‘ready’ (whatever that means) to return with a bid much lower than the amount they had made previously (and seen rejected).
The 28-year-old could now be available for $75 million (70-80m Euro) rather than the previous figure of $109 million (about 100M euro).
Why the drastic price cut?
A.) Napoli are aware how likely they are of losing out on Champions League revenue next season
B.) The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting the football world, financially, extremely hard and player price cuts in the transfer market are inevitable.
C.) At age 28, this is probably the peak valuation in terms of what Napoli can get for him.
Sticking with United vs. Liverpool in the transfer market, both clubs, along with Manchester City, are keen on Wolverhampton Wanderers star Adama Traore.
That’s according to French outlet le10sport, who note that the 24-year-old winger/wing back still has three seasons left on his current deal. It has been said that Bayern Munich are also interested in the Spanish international.
United have often been linked with his teammate at the Molineux, forward Raul Jimenez.
Finally, promising young midfielder James Garner, who earned a feature in the Europa League this season, will be allowed to go out on loan. Swansea City, Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday are all said to be keen. The Daily Mail has more.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly contributes to WGN TV, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Now and SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for Chicago Tribune.com, on Twitter and his cat on Instagram.