Manchester United have just 13 days left to get their business done in the summer transfer window and that time pressure is beginning to show.
United have so far signed three players: Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen and Lisandro Martinez. Eriksen was a free transfer and Martinez is a former player of Erik ten Hag at Ajax. And yet, those three deals have taken up the vast majority of the summer transfer window – all 83 days of it. The rest has apparently been spent chasing Ten Hag’s number one priority target Frenkie de Jong, who remains a Barcelona player.
New chief executive Richard Arnold started the summer down a local pub, where he insisted to disgruntled fans that, after years of Ed Woodward, this summer was going to be different. "Money is not a consideration on who we want,” Arnold said. “The manager wants him [De Jong] and they have actually done the work. He's a great player. Is it 100 or 200 [million]? I don't know. Get who you f***ing want. Do you want me buying the players? Does that not ring a bell?"
Arnold and football director John Murtough have spent the summer “interrailing” around Europe, chasing De Jong, Ajax forward Antony and Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot. They have completed deals for none of those players and, in the meantime, United have been busy losing to Brighton and Brentford.
Things have now reached a desperate point. United need reinforcements – and they need them fast. But things won’t have got any easier – selling clubs know United are desperate, so can inflate prices, while potential signings can ask for inflated wages.
Every day brings with it new names, with a back-up goalkeeper, right-back, central midfielder and forward all on the cards. And that is where Casemiro and Alvaro Morata come in, alongside the likes of Antony, De Jong, Christian Pulisic, Thomas Meunier, Yann Sommer, Asmir Begovic, Joao Felix, Matheus Cunha, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and many, many more.
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Casemiro appears to be the most likely of the longlist of names above. With De Jong at a standstill, the Real Madrid midfielder has reportedly become a priority in recent days. The Brazilian is an excellent player who would no doubt improve Ten Hag’s current midfield, but there are many caveats.
United are reportedly ready to offer 30-year-old Casemiro a five-year bumper contract – perhaps as much as double his current Real deal – and pay the Spanish giants £60million. Those numbers stink of short-term thinking, not joined-up planning, which – of course – is what it is.
Morata has been linked with a transfer all summer after his loan spell from Atletico Madrid to Juventus expired. The 29-year-old Spanish striker is a strangely polarising player who blows hot and cold – but he most definitely blew cold during his three years at Chelsea, where he managed 24 goals in 72 appearances and often cut a frustrated figure.
The Times have reported that Atletico Madrid would be willing to offer Morata to United as part of a swap deal for Cristiano Ronaldo. That does not sound like a great deal for United or Ten Hag. But with the clock ticking and the club becoming increasingly desperate, it is exactly the kind of deal they will continue to be offered.
United have left it late and a trolley dash is now their only hope.
