These are your Manchester United evening headlines for Wednesday, August 24.
Manchester United set to bid again for Antony
Manchester United are expected to submit another bid for Ajax forward Antony.
United manager Erik ten Hag earmarked Antony, 22, as his priority target in attack at the start of the transfer window and Ajax are holding out for an offer of around €100million (£84.15m).
Antony would have been attainable for €80m had United not already furnished Ajax with £46.8m up front for centre-back Lisandro Martinez.
Erik ten Hag has taken the first major decision to leave his imprint on Manchester United
Erik ten Hag was avoiding discussing Cristiano Ronaldo when he noted the promise of Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez as a partnership against Rayo Vallecano, only he had already assigned Harry Maguire first-choice status.
In that same discussion at AAMI Park in Melbourne last month Ten Hag clarified Martinez, a £55.3million acquisition, had been recruited to strengthen the team, not the squad. So Varane's omission for the opening weekend defeat to Brighton was inevitable.
Louis van Gaal admitted the captaincy guaranteed Wayne Rooney privileges and retrospectively conceded he was "over the hill". Rooney avoided an outright demotion by Van Gaal until a bruising Boxing Day at Stoke in 2015 that marked United's fourth consecutive defeat.
READ NEXT:
