Manchester United may soon add Carlos Baleba as their fourth first-team signing of the summer, with talks with Brighton & Hove Albion said to be moving forward after an opening bid of $88.6 million (\u00a365 million).<\/p>\n
Baleba enjoyed a breakout 2024-25 campaign before a quieter 2025-26 season, but he still looks like the kind of defence-minded midfielder Michael Carrick\u2019s squad has been missing. Even with Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans already through the door, he would add the balance United were targeting in the centre of the pitch.<\/p>\n
That need is part of a wider summer plan that has already brought in backup goalkeeper Karl Darlow on a free transfer, while the U-21 group has also been strengthened by winger Tynan Thompson, goalkeeper Kit Margetson and midfielder Cristian Orozco. United went into the window needing three midfield additions and may yet finish it having done exactly that.<\/p>\n
If Baleba does arrive, the shirt situation becomes more interesting. He has worn 17 for Brighton and Cameroon, although that number was free at United before being given to Santos last month. Another option is 20, which he used at Brighton and is still open in Manchester. He also wore 35 at Lille and took 24 at the most recent Africa Cup of Nations, though that shirt would need to be taken from Andr\u00e9 Onana, who is on loan at Trabzonspor for a second season.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s current number list leaves a few possibilities, but also some complications. Marcus Rashford has worn 9 in preseason yet remains unassigned officially, while he had been linked with 14 after his loan spell at Barcelona. Joshua Zirkzee is still a possible departure, which could free up 11 if he moves on, with Juventus still linked to a loan.<\/p>\n
For now, the numbering picture remains unsettled, even as United edge closer to another significant signing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Baleba could arrive at United, but his preferred shirt numbers are already in use or still open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,179],"tags":[59,180,182],"class_list":["post-18640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-manchester-united","tag-featured","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18640","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=18640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}