There are only 20 days left until the summer transfer window closes in England, and Manchester United still have plenty of business get done. Just three days after the window closes, United will host Chelsea FC in the season opener. In other words, the silly season will soon give way to the season of substance.
That said, let’s take a look at some of the narratives currently driving the news cycle in regards to Manchester United.
We start with the latest on the Romelu Lukaku transfer saga/negotiations with Inter Milan. New Inter boss Antonio Conte wants to finally land his man in Lukaku, and reportedly £75 million will get it done.
However, the Serie A side is getting cold feet now about this potential transaction, and that has the Italian fuming, claims the Daily Mail.
Well, it didn’t take very long then for Conte to clash with his new club over transfer decisions (something that truly defined his tenure at Chelsea).
Elsewhere, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said this week that United could use a midfielder like club legend Bryan Robson, who was known as Captain Marvel. This call for a new leader certainly sounded like a challenge being issued to Paul Pogba.
And Pogba did say he wanted a new challenge at this time in his career. Clearly, Pogba wants a move away from the club, but Robson has said that the Frenchman needs to focus on his career at United right now and ignore the loud call for a transfer away made by his agent Mino Raiola.
Also, Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has reportedly been told that getting a deal done would be very difficult.
Finally, former United striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic was questioned about Area 51, the ultra-classified United States military facility in rural Nevada which has long been believed by some (conspiracy theorists) to be the home to extraterrestrial testing and scientific experimentation.
You may have heard about the (tongue-in-cheek??) plan to storm into Area 51 on September 20th, and that’s what prompted the query here to Ibra.
The mercurial Swede said he doesn’t need to worry about going to Area 51 because they won’t find Zlatan there.
You have one chance to ask Zlatan Ibrahimovic a question… pic.twitter.com/2J7iQIMtgj
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) July 18, 2019
Zlatan being Zlatan- he’s always good for a sound bite.
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 appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.