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 news items to cover and analyze.
So let’s take a look at what the Manchester United community is talking about in cyberspace on this Sunday. For our MUFC restarted season preview and best potential starting XI go here. For today’s MUFC transfer talk, go here.
United were set to stage a friendly against Stoke City today at their Carrington training ground. It was called off at the last minute, with no explanation given as to why. The cancellation was so abrupt that players had already arrived at training.
The Manchester Evening News has a photo collection at this link, the team staged an intrasquad scrimmage instead. And now they’ll face West Bromwich Albion sometime this week in a warm-up friendly. The details of which are still being finalized.
Elsewhere, United defender Marcos Rojo, currently on loan at Estudiantes in his native Argentina and linked with a move away from the club, has been caught breaking quaratine again. This time, it forced the club to release an official statement.
It reads in part:
“Firstly, in compliance with the Preventive and Mandatory Social Isolation, our institution remains closed, having even offered the municipal authorities our facilities for sanitary use by the community, if necessary, for purposes related to the situation we are experiencing due to the pandemic.
“Secondly, neither Mr. Marcos Rojo nor the other people were authorised by our institution to enter the property. We are investigating what happened as a result of which we will take the appropriate measures, but under no circumstances do we approve this flagrant violation of the regulations imposed by the national, provincial and municipal government, adding to the condemnation of the fact.”
Go here to read the statement in full.
Finally, Chris Smalling has certainly impressed while on loan with AS Roma this season. So much so that the Serie A side hopes to extend his stay beyond June 30 (when his current contract reaches completion).
AS Roma Sporting Director Gianluca Pertrachi made it further known that he hopes to hold on to Smalling, as well as former United winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who was also acquired in the January transfer window.
“The numbers don’t lie, they have been two successful loans,” Pertrachi told Sky Sports in Italy.
“We, unfortunately, lost Mkhitaryan for a physical problem for a little bit, but he’s very comfortable here just like Smalling.”
“We’ll do everything we can to keep them, especially since they want to stay here. We’ll find out in the future if we are able to or not, but I feel the players are on my side”
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.
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