Manchester United, along with the rest of most global football, are off indefinitely, so let’s do some transfer talk instead. If there’s one thing that can survive a global pandemic, it’s transfer rumors. There are now multiple reports that the Premier League could return to action in June, and play matches behind closed doors.
That is of course contingent on how well England and Europe do in containment and mitigation of the coronavirus of course. Until then we only have transfer talk to do, and we start with the narrative of another transfer window Manchester derby for a central defender.
It’s Swansea City’s Joe Rodon, who had a standout season with the Swans, will be a hot commodity this summer transfer window, and the Evening Standard has more at this link. The two Manchester clubs battled in the transfer market for a center half last summer, with United breaking the bank to sign Leicester City’s Harry Maguire; on a world record transfer fee for a defender.
This transaction would not be in that financial neighborhood however. It would be more in the fiscal ballpark of last year’s acquisition of winger Daniel James from Swansea.
Elsewhere, the latest in the Harry Kane pursuit. We learned over the weekend that Tottenham Hotspur Chairman Daniel Levy would actually sanction the sale of his franchise player. Then we learned that Levy would be willing to sell Kane, but not to United, or any other Premier League rival.
Today, ESPN has a report saying United remain undeterred by this warning, and wish to pursue the possibility anyway.
If a Kane sale were to happen, and that’s a very big if, the fee could potentially break the world record. Even if it doesn’t, it would obviously be a blockbuster deal that would have numerous ripple effects all over England and Europe.
Spurs would use a lot of the money to pay off debts on the new stadium, but they would also have to do a lot of re-investment in the roster. As for United, acquiring Kane would likely call off the pursuit of Jadon Sancho, because there is probably no club that would splash the cash around like that, in any transfer window. Especially not now in these very uncertain times.
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.
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