Manchester United are reportedly willing to spend £153 million on Barcelona winger Ansu Fati before his club hand him a new contract which will include a £360 million release clause. Spanish news source Mundo Deportivo, reported by The Sun have reported the claim which seems rather peculiar based on the fact that if United had this much money to spend on a player, they would have paid the £108 million needed to sign Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund this summer.
It is suggested that United offered the German club between £60 million and £70 million up front with the rest to be paid in instalments, which seems rather strange. Now United, who don’t seem to want to spend much money on Sancho, are seemingly offering more to sign Fati, 17, who will turn 18 on the 31 October 2020. Obviously, the player has done well to fight for a place in Barcelona’s first team with his stock only set to rise. But the same could be said for Sancho, 20.
To me, it seems that either the club, of Ed Woodward are briefing the media of what they want to do, rather than doing it, or the media around Europa are just making everything up, which is not a good way of doing things either. If United want to do something, get it does and make sure it is well publicised that you have done it, whether it results in a successful transfer or not. United need to get something done this summer and nearly a month after the transfer window opened, nothing has happened.
A rumour in the media means nothing at the end of the day but it is life either Woodward or the journalists writing this news don’t care about what could be caused because of things like this. At this moment in time, Chelsea, who finished just below United in the Premier League, have had a rather successful transfer window already signing Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner with Leicester City’s Ben Chilwell and Bayer Leverkusen’s Kai Havertz close to being completed, plus Thiago Silva is linked to the club, leaving Paris Saint-Germain as a free agent this summer.
United need to be doing things like Chelsea, fixing a squad which has a good first XI but is poor when it comes to quality depth. There are many players at the club who should have played their last matches by now and should be getting ready to leave the club, but it would seem that another summer transfer window could come and go with United taking the simple options of allowing these same players to continue to be carried by other players at the club, making sure United achieve nothing of note, which is not what many of the players, the coaches or the manager wants.
To suggest that United will be willing to spend £153 million on Ansu Fati and not spend £108 million on Jadon Sancho is preposterous. Many have the mind that the club is playing the media and the supporters, despite what has been done in the past. United signed Daniel James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Harry Maguire then signed Bruno Fernandes during the January transfer window and this summer, the right-wing, the defence and the midfield require some rebuilding in some way. How long can United continue to make it look like they are doing nothing?
Written by John Walker
