Welcome to the heights (or depths) of the summer silly season, as the major international tournaments are now over. It’s all preseason friendlies and transfer window talk for the next month, until the season begins. Let’s take a look at the latest narratives churning in the Manchester United transfer rumor mill.
For the most part, it’s been a dreadfully boring this transfer window, but United are the club who completed the biggest splash signing, in getting Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund.
For more on who could be the next addition after Sancho go here. In this post we’ll focus on who might leaving, and where they could be going. For the latest United news and notes, following the preseason friendly loss to QPR, go here.
According to The Daily Star, forward Anthony Martial could now be expendable in the wake of the Sancho addition. The report says that Old Trafford are hoping to receive £50m in return as a transfer fee for the Frenchman they acquired on summer transfer window deadline day 2015.
The forward, who currently earns about £250,000 per week, is part of a very crowded situation in the final third. We’ve looked at how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could manage his attacking third here and here. While it is overloaded, you do need depth, as injuries happen. Just look at the Marcus Rashford situation.
Tottenham Hotspur are interested in the 25-year-old Frenchman, but given how exceedingly stingy Daniel Levy is with the transfer war chest, it remains to be seen if they are willing to pay United’s asking price.
In sticking with the French theme, it was reported on Friday that contract extension talks with Paul Pogba stalled out, and this second departure from the club was inevitable. Solskjaer begs to differ however.
“Talks are ongoing between Paul’s representatives and the club representatives,” the Norwegian said after losing 4-2 to Queens Park Rangers in a friendly yesterday.
“All the dialogue I’ve had with Paul is that he’s looking forward to the season. There’s always speculation about Paul, the talks between the club and Paul’s representatives, I don’t know every detail of every single one of them. I’ve not got anything to say really about that.
“There’s always clubs being interested and of course we’ve seen Paul at his best and Paul knows what we feel about it and I’ve enjoyed my time working with him and hopefully we can work together.”
Finally, back-up goalkeeper Sergio Romero has finally been amnestied from United, but where will he go now? Potentially Chelsea or Juventus, according to ESPN FC.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.
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