Manchester United’s midfield reconstruction is nearing completion.
After signing Andrey Santos from Chelsea and Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa in the space of 24 hours of each other last month, there has been an element of ‘will-they, won’t-they’ about the past five weeks.
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At times, it felt the ‘third midfielder’ search has taken on a life of its own.
Real Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouameni was heavily touted, so too Bournemouth’s Alex Scott and Roma’s Manu Kone. In more recent days, the name of Fulham’s Sander Berge has become more prominent. That of Bournemouth’s Tyler Adams has never gone away.
United privately played down potential interest in Brighton’s Carlos Baleba.
But in a sense, they didn’t need to be actively interested in him. Most of the work was done 12 months ago, when United made a play for him but backed off when they discovered the asking price would be in excess of £100m.
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Now the first offer has gone in; £60m, plus an additional £5m. It won’t be enough.
Talks are continuing though and the expectation is the transfer will get done.
If the deal goes through, and when Baleba has recovered from an ankle injury sustained in pre-season that is expected to keep him out for another couple of weeks, Michael Carrick will have variety and options, which also include Mason Mount, Scotland World Cup squad member Tyler Fletcher and, in extremis, Fernandes.
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