Manchester United defender Victor Lindelof has signed a new five-year contract to remain at the Old Trafford club. This would see him remain at United until the summer of 2024, although there is the option for a further year to be added to his contract. In the summer, there was speculation that Barcelona wanted to sign the Swedish international.
The 25-year-old signed for the club in the summer of 2017 under the management of Jose Mourinho. After a pretty poor first season, the Swede dug in and was the best defender at the club last season, continuing that this season, partnered with summer signing Harry Maguire – an indication that the defence has been sorted for the foreseeable future.
Lindelof has played 74 times for United in just over two years, scoring one goal, which came under current manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer, the equaliser in the 2-2 draw against Burnley earlier in the year, in which he was named the Man of the Match by the clubs supporters. Speaking to the official Manchester United website, Lindelof said:
“Since the day I arrived at United it has felt like home. I have grown significantly both as a player and as a person in the last two years and for that I am grateful to everyone at the club for their help and support.
“I love playing football and my aim now is to help the team to win trophies and repay the fans for their unrivalled support.
“I know that everyone at the club shares this vision and will give everything to get Manchester United back to where it belongs.
“I’m still young and know I can improve further but with the help of the boss and his coaching staff, I believe that only good things are ahead for this great club.”
Solskjaer will be happy to retain the Swedish international who has risen to the challenge of playing for United in the past 18 months or so. The fact that the club now has a ball playing defender in their midst who is being given opportunities to show his ability is a great thing to happen after years of Phil Jones and Chris Smalling underachieving.
The Norwegian spoke about Lindelof establishing himself into his squad, also becoming a very important part of his team, which is good to hear. The fact that the Swede shows calmness on the pitch is light years ahead of the panicking of Jones and Smalling, although it was not always like that. Solskjaer, speaking to the official Manchester United website, said:
“Victor [Lindelof] has established himself here and has become a very important part of our team. He brings calmness on the pitch and I can see that he is determined to help this club and to be successful here.
“I’m extremely happy that he has committed his future to Manchester United. We’re all looking forward to working together to deliver the success and get United back to where we know the club belongs.”
United now have a strong foundation in defence with Lindelof and Maguire as the first-choice defenders with Axel Tuanzebe currently the third option in the team. Once Eric Bailly is fit, he will content with the trio for a place in the team, which will not only strengthen the defence, it will bring the best out of all of these players.
Solskjaer will be seeking to find a team that can contend for titles and trophies for the years to come with United spending too much time out of doing just that, It is good to see a manager with a plan for the future, which might be costly right now. Blooding in youth and building around that is the way of this club and that should never change.
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