Manchester United, along with the rest of most global football, have been off since March 13, but there are still plenty of news items, related to the club, circulating today. There have been multiple reports indicating that the Premier League could return to action by as early as June 8, and potentially play matches behind closed doors.
The goal, and all 20 Premier League clubs are in agreement on this, is to complete the season in a 40 day window, but it’s all of course contingent on containment and mitigation of the coronavirus pandemic. In the meantime, we also have some transfer rumors please check out our all United transfer rumor starting XI and our optimal United XI with top transfer targets acquired and key players retained.
We start with the latest on the quest to sign Jadon Sancho, the Borussia Dortmund winger who is supposedly the club’s top transfer target this summer. In an effort to try and keep him, BVB plan to make the English international one of the highest paid players at the club.
His salary would then go north of €10 million per season if he stays put. That’s according to Bild, as referenced in this article by The People’s Person. United would then theoretically have to give him a rise in paygrade in order to obtain him.
Elsewhere, the next big thing in United’s youth ranks might just be 17-year-old Hannibal Mejbri, acquired from AS Monaco last August. And he has hair like Sideshow Bob, the infamous villain on The Simpsons. (Yes, it’s a little reminiscent of Marouane Fellaini)
Opposing fans have antagonized him on the hair style, and he’s had some fun with that on social media.
ESPN has a good profile piece on Mejbri, over at this link.
Moving on, United midfielder Juan Mata almost joined Arsenal in 2011, when the Gunners were looking for Cesc Fabregas replacement. With Fabregas bound for Barcelona, Arsene Wenger had his club in pole position to land Mata from Valencia, but they dithered, and that allowed Chelsea to swoop in.
Metro has more at this link. Mata eventually left Chelsea for United in January of 2014, on a club record transfer fee.
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 appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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