One of The Athletic’s chief Manchester United correspondents has dropped an eye-opening update on United’s efforts to sign Manu Kone.
Man Utd always intended to sign three new central midfielders this summer, and boxes one and two have now been ticked.
A combined £85m has been splashed out on Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans, with all eyes on who’ll complete the rebuild in central areas.
Entering the summer, Man Utd were expected to spend monster sums on confirmed targets like Aurelien Tchouameni, Sandro Tonali and Elliot Anderson.
Ultimately, United refused to pay the big bucks for Tonali and Anderson who both joined new clubs for nine-figure fees.
That’s left some United fans with a slight sense of disappointment at the calibre of player the club have signed, and are targeting for arrival No 3.
You might think Roma’s Manu Kone – who Fabrizio Romano recently confirmed Man Utd have held talks with his agents – would represent a more stellar signing. Indeed, Kone started often for France at the World Cup.
But according to the latest from The Athletic’s Laurie Whitwell, Kone isn’t a player Man Utd have any real intention of paying good money for.
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Man Utd reluctant to spend heavily on Manu Kone
That’s despite Roma’s rumoured price tag of around £45m-£50m being what Whitwell described as lower than it ordinarily would be.
Even that reduced sum might be deemed excessive by United in a clear indication they don’t rate the 25-year-old all that highly.
Whitwell said on the Talk of the Devils podcast: “Yeah. You don’t think he would be a sort of stellar name? I suppose he isn’t – he’s not going to be a £100m footballer, is he? I don’t think. No, but I don’t know.
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“I even now have a slight feeling from speaking to people that maybe the price point Roma would want – I know it’s sort of reduced from what he would typically be worth but even that might be too rich for United’s blood.
“Yeah, I’m kind of hesitating to say anything definitively because clearly plans have changed as the summer window has gone on.”
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