After last night’s disaster at Old Trafford, the awful truth is just laid bare all the more for everyone to see- Manchester United are still light years away from where they should be. Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer called the first half of football, in which his side conceded three times to Manchester City, and didn’t score, the worst half his has played this season.
Down 1-3 after the home leg of their EFL Cup semifinal tie, they’ll head into the road leg in a deep, deep hole. So where do they go from here? Obviously, they need some help in midfield, especially the middle of the park, and this issue keeps worsening as the injuries pile up. Solskjaer admits the position group is where his club is looking for reinforcements.
However, he also added “if it isn’t the right thing, we won’t do anything.” That said, perhaps just as important, if not more so than the proper additions is to cut bait with the deadwood. We covered that in the first installment of today’s United transfer talk, which you can find at this link.
Now we move on to potential additions. Having pulled out on Erling Haaland, United need to make a statement this January, and that could come in the form of Ajax’s Donny van de Beek. ESPN reports today that
“United and Solskjaer believe a deal could be done for Van de Beek this month as a result of Ajax failing to qualify for the Champions League group stages.”
With last year’s UCL semifinalists having failed to reach the knockout round this season, they’re reportedly looking to make up on the money they’ll miss out on by selling off a star player or two. Van De Beek, who supposedly has a valuation of about £50 million perfectly fits the profile of what United are looking for in an attacking midfielder.
The 22-year-old Netherlands international also has a lot of potential to reach a very high ceiling, and he’s scored eight goals in 26 games this season.
If not Van de Beek, then United may turn to Leicester City’s James Maddison or Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish. Or they could return to their top target of the 2014 summer transfer window that came close, but never materialized- Arturo Vidal.
He was with Juventus then, and has since moved to Bayern Munich, and is now with FC Barcelona- where’s he extremely unhappy now.
According to Italian publication Corriere della Sera, Vidal is set to leave the Catalan club, and United are once again interested. Is this January when Vidal, now 32, will finally move to Old Trafford?
Well, reportedly, it’s not United, but Inter Milan who are in pole position to acquire his services right now. Manager Antonio Conte is a long time admirer, having tried to acquire him during his Chelsea days.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.
