Unai Emery Aston Villa
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Manchester United are seemingly accepting defeat, with Arsenal beating them to one of their key transfer targets, seeing The Red Devils turn to Aston Villa instead.
The Gunners have seemingly won the race to sign Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting CP as the Swedish striker is set to move to London.
Last night it was reported that Gyokeres has agreed personal terms in principle to move to Premier League giants Arsenal after a major fallout with the Portuguese club.
The Liga Portugal side reportedly breached the gentleman’s agreement with Gyokeres by demanding £67 million for a summer move, instead of the agreed £52 million.
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However, Sporting’s president has spoken publicly to say there was no set fee in any gentleman’s agreement for the talented striker.
Now, Gyokeres is seeming close to an exit from the Portuguese club, with United now turning their attention to Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.
The Mirror has reported that United are “stepping up their interest” in the England international after seemingly missing out on Gyokeres.
Whilst Watkins is much older than United’s recruitment profile targets of 26-year-olds and under, the 29-year-old is a proven Premier League striker which fits with the rest of the INEOS strategy.
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With finances being tight for The Red Devils, the club need to minimise risk with new signings, so proven Premier League stars such as their recent signing of Matheus Cunha are more likely to be seen at Old Trafford over the next few windows.
United have reportedly already held talks with Villa over a potential move for Ollie Watkins, with The Villains valuing their striker at £60 million.
It’s also thought that as Watkins fell down the pecking order at Villa Park last season, with United loanee Marcus Rashford starting ahead of him, losing Watkins wouldn’t be a major issue to Unai Emery.
A swap-deal for the pair was reportedly considered, however this didn’t go any further with Rashford prioritising a move abroad and Villa seeing a permanent move for Rashford and his hefty wages as financially unviable without Champions League football.
As the talks with Villa have only been fact finding at this time, we’re yet to see if United are looking to enter official negotiations at this time, with their primary focus being on securing Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford and making sales.
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