Manchester United flashes Arnautovic and courts Rabiot

After a false start in the league

Cristiano Ronaldo wants out, false start in the league and things aren’t going well for Manchester United on the transfer market either. “It’s a hell of a job,” said coach Erik ten Hag when asked how difficult it would be to get the “Red Devils” back on the road to success (quoted via “Times“).

While the transfer of desired player Frenkie de Jong (25) from FC Barcelona is stalling, the English record champions in Serie A are looking for reinforcements. According to the transfer expert Gianluca Di Marzio FC Bologna was offered around 9 million euros for the services of center forward Marko Arnautovic (33) and failed. “The Athletic” reports that United are also trying to sign midfielder Adrien Rabiot (27) from Juventus Turin.

Ex-United pro and “Sky Sports“Expert Gary Neville is not very enthusiastic about the advances around Arnautovic: “We’ve seen it with Radamel Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani and Odion Ighalo – it’s desperate, it’s a pattern. It happens over and over again.” By this Neville means the sometimes forced commitments of veterans for the storm center. “I’m not talking about names, this summer 250 players have been linked to Man United,” said ten Hag about the rumors about the Austrian. As a classic “Nine” he is currently only available to Ronaldo, who came off the bench on Matchday 1.

All arrivals and departures
Man United’s transfer summerTo overview
“The first thing you do when the phone rings and it’s Manchester United is to turn down the offer because after losing to Brighton they are in an even worse negotiating position than they were before,” Neville said. He’s not entirely wrong, as expectations are high for the new manager and to date only Lisandro Martínez (24, Ajax) and Tyrell Malacia (22, Feyenoord) have been hired for defence, and Christian Eriksen (30, Brentford) for 72 million euros committed. The departures page is much more prominent.

While there is said to have been a rejection from Bologna, negotiations are still pending with Juventus. Rabiot, who moved to Turin from PSG on a free transfer in 2019, is in his final year of contract and earns €7m net per season at Juve. In three Serie A seasons, he was a regular with all his coaches and could make room for Leandro Paredes (28, PSG) in the midfield of coach Massimiliano Allegri with a change, to whom the “old lady” should be next. It would be the first season of Rabiot’s career without Champions League football, which ex-colleague Cristiano Ronaldo continues to hope for.

To home page