Manchester United\u2019s pursuit of a third midfielder this summer has slowed, with financial caution now shaping their thinking in that area.<\/p>\n
The Athletic reports that money matters are affecting United\u2019s plans, and the club are reluctant to move ahead with a deal that may prove too expensive. Roma midfielder Manu Kon\u00e9 is among those of interest, yet officials are understood to be wary of committing to an agreement that could rise to $68.5 million (\u00a351 million), according to reports in Italy.<\/p>\n
L\u2019\u00c9quipe describe Kon\u00e9 as a \u201cpriority target\u201d for United, but also note that talks have made limited progress so far. The same report says there is concern at Old Trafford about \u201coverpaying\u201d for a player whose value has been pushed up by a strong World Cup.<\/p>\n
A similar problem has affected their interest in Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott. He is rated much higher by the Cherries, and that valuation has helped prevent the move from moving forward.<\/p>\n
United have only completed one sale this summer, with the pre-agreed $51 million move of striker Rasmus H\u00f8jlund to Napoli already in place. The club are clearly hoping to bring in more through departures, but the list of realistic exits is shrinking.<\/p>\n
Andr\u00e9 Onana has gone back to Trabzonspor on loan, while Altay Bay\u0131nd\u0131r\u2019s expected departure is unlikely to generate significant funds. In defence, Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui have both been linked with exits.<\/p>\n
A planned sale of Manuel Ugarte has also been disrupted by a serious injury suffered during the World Cup, removing what may have been United\u2019s most valuable potential departure.<\/p>\n
Marcus Rashford now looks set to stay, along with his club-high salary, after Barcelona chose not to sign him permanently and a release clause expired. That may leave Joshua Zirkzee as the only likely forward-line exit.<\/p>\n
If United want to fund further business, including a possible move for a new left back, they may have to consider players who would not ordinarily be obvious candidates for sale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United\u2019s midfield search has been slowed by financial caution, leaving sales and spending under review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17908,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[1806],"class_list":["post-17909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","tag-manu-kone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}