Credit: BBC Sport
Brighton’s manager Fabian Hurzeler has been speaking about transfer concerns following the emergence of Manchester United’s interest in Carlos Baleba.
Manchester United are looking to make a big statement in the final weeks of the summer transfer window by setting their sights on Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba.
Rúben Amorim has already been backed with three major first-team signings — Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, and Benjamin Šeško — acquisitions aimed at strengthening United’s attacking options.
Despite these additions, further reinforcements are still needed in other areas of the squad, with Baleba identified as a player capable of making an immediate impact in midfield.
United believe the 21-year-old is open to the switch, though Brighton are expected to drive a hard bargain in negotiations.
Hurzeler makes ‘accept it’ claim about Baleba and Brighton sales
Brighton are extremely tough negotiators but they also will usually allow their players to depart if their valuation is met and that could happen once again.
Fabian Hurzeler has explained how The Seagulls will continue to ‘find solutions’ when players end up leaving the Amex Stadium, and that they must ‘accept’ the cycle as it is part of their club model.
Hurzeler said during an interview with the Monday Night Club: “We as a club always find solutions and I’m sure in the future we will find solutions. That’s our model, we have to accept it.
“I think that as a club we have proved we are not only selling big players. We have had offers for other players – big offers for [Kaoru] Mitoma and other players. We proved that we are not selling every player.
“Of course there were some big players who left the club, but there are new players that are coming into the club. With the togetherness we have, with the team chemistry we have, we can compete with the big teams, and we can compete with teams who might be individually better than us.”
This could be seen as a good sign for United in their pursuit of Baleba. Even though Brighton’s public stance in the media is that he’s not for sale, Hurzeler did not rule anything out.
United are more confident than expected with Baleba deal
United have spent more than a week focusing on this Baleba deal and it’s difficult to imagine they think a deal could be struck at a cut-price deal.
The Reds know that Baleba will cost plenty of cash, potentially over the £100 million mark, and the fact that they have not walked away from the deal suggests that they could end up meeting Brighton’s demands.
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Of course, player sales are needed to do so and United are quickly trying to move on the likes of Rasmus Højlund, Alejandro Garnacho and Antony.
But if that happens then United could have a level of confidence that no one expected heading into negotiations with Brighton as they know the price and they have the buy-in from the player.
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