The Angel di Maria transfer saga is now over; finally. Well, not quite yet. Sorry about that.
Maybe he will be heading away from Manchester United and to Paris St. Germain, but it’s not official yet. A new report came in from ESPN FC (this seriously just went out a few minutes ago) after PSG Manager Laurent Blanc said this today:
‘In the Di Maria case, the whole thing is close to being over. I’m rather positive about it.’
the Guardian is now reporting that Manchester United received only a £28.5 million bid, less than half of his £59.7 million transfer fee from just a year ago. The outlet claims that United’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is holding out for more before agreeing to a deal but it is still likely that Di Maria will not be a member of the team for the upcoming Premier League season.
United signed Di Maria for a record £59.7 million last season; and the reports claims that PSG’s initial bid was only about half that! It seemed to be understood by everybody covering the transfer saga that United were going to take a huge financial hit on this deal, but no on thought it would be £40 million pounds; it was expected to be closer to £13-£14 million pounds.
No matter the fee, no matter how this ends, it will be the main talking point when the two clubs meet Wednesday night in a preseason clash in Chicago.The massive fiscal loss on Di Maria makes his signing quite a massive bust for United. So this news is a bit of a downer, but hey, at least “Di Maria watch” will soon be over.
Probably.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country.
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