Manchester United will recommence their season with an away fixture at Tottenham Hotspur on Friday night of June 19. It won’t be long now, but until we have football matches again, we still have plenty of transfer gossip items to cover and analyze.
So let’s take a look at what the Manchester United community is talking about in cyberspace today. For our MUFC restarted season preview and best potential starting XI go here. For today’s MUFC news and notes go here.
It looks like United are going to miss out on one of their top transfer targets for this summer, in 16-year-old midfielder Jude Bellingham. The developing star at Birmingham City is considered right up there with Jadon Sancho and Jack Grealish as names topping the Old Trafford wish list.
But it looks like he’ll bolt Birmingham for Borussia Dortmund, reports the Daily Mail. The youngster and his family were given a tour of the Carrington training complex this spring, by none other than club patriarch Sir Alex Ferguson himself, but apparently it wasn’t enough to help win him over.
If/when he moves to BVB, it will almost certainly lead to eventually leaving Dortmund a couple seasons or so down the line, with the Bundesliga side likely to sell him for a transfer fee that is much higher than what they acquired him for.
It’s the BVB way- buy low, sell high on young talent.
Elsewhere a new name being linked with United, at least somewhat, is FC Barcelona forward Ansu Fati. However, there is really no need to go too in depth on the potential of the 17-year-old leaving the Catalan club, because it’s too far fetched.
He signed a new deal this past December that will keep him in Catalonia until 2022 and his release clause is said to be €170 million.
Despite rumours of a £100m bid, there is actually no there there.
“United are also wary about how agents often use their name in the transfer rumour mill when discussing new contracts with their clients and existing clubs, as a way of drumming up interest in them.”
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.