Manchester United have just completed a huge week, and the results were mixed to say the least. Now they are on the final international break of 2018. Although it’s a break period, there is still plenty of news circulating on this Tuesday. Let’s take a look at some of the relevant news and notes making the rounds within the Manchester United community online right now.
This post covers a trio of players who will be out of contract this summer, and thus able to move on a free transfer: Ashley Young, Juan Mata and Ander Herrera. The triad are all currently playing for the club on a single season extension in their deals that was triggered last year.
We start with Young, a 33-year-old English international who will likely see one more year added on to his current deal, and thus keep him at the club until 2020.
Young is extremely versatile, a natural winger who earned a regular place in the starting XI at left back, until he was beaten out, at both the club and country level, by Luke Shaw. Ashley Young then found his place in the team on the other side of the back line, filling in for injured team captain Antonio Valencia at right back. Young is one of United’s longest-serving players, having joined up from Aston Villa in 2011 for about £17 million.
Next up in the out-of-contract brigade is midfielder Juan Mata, who broke the club transfer fee record when he moved over from Chelsea for £37.1 million in January of 2014. That transfer fee figure standing as a club record seems “cute” today doesn’t it?
Mata, on the surface at least, seems like the club’s overall nicest guy and his dedication to service makes him one of the game’s overall good guys, but he’s found playing time harder to come by this season.
When manager Jose Mourinho first arrived in May 2016, it was thought that Mata would no longer have a place in the team, but the Spaniard has since been able to consistently make an impact on the team.
This season however, he has found himself on the fringes.
The same can be said of another Spanish midfielder, Ander Herrera, who moved over from Athletic Bilbao in summer of 2014. The team’s player of the year award winner in 2016-17, he’s only made four starts this season. Herrera is about as rah rah rah for the team as any player on the squad though, so you know he wants to stay put as long as possible.
United have two more key players who will see their deals expire in the summer- goalkeeper David de Gea and forward Anthony Martial. However, if no breakthroughs are reached in negotiations, the club can exercise one year options on both.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Lineups.com and Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.