Manchester United\u2019s search for a new left back is continuing, but Lewis Hall now looks to be an unlikely solution.<\/p>\n
The Newcastle United defender had been viewed as one of the more intriguing possibilities for United, yet that notion has been weakened after his showing in the 2-2 draw with Liverpool. Hall played the full match and, despite being involved in the late penalty that allowed Dominik Szoboszlai to equalise, he spent much of the game dealing sharply with Liverpool\u2019s Rio Ngumoha and V\u00edctor Mu\u00f1oz.<\/p>\n
Even before the weekend, there had been talk of Newcastle\u2019s strong commitment to keeping the 21-year-old. That stance has now been made plain, leaving United to assess other targets.<\/p>\n
One of those alternatives could be found in Spain. Alejandro Balde was not included in Barcelona\u2019s squad for their trip to Elche, and Hansi Flick made clear that the omission was not injury-related after a 5-0 defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke with Balde this morning and told him that I think he\u2019s not here at 100%, clear your mind and then we\u2019ll talk,\u201d the German coach bluntly revealed.<\/p>\n
Balde\u2019s path at Barcelona has already had several turns. After recovering from a serious tendon rupture, he became Flick\u2019s first-choice left back in his breakthrough season, combining effectively with Raphinha on the overlap. But a hamstring problem at the start of last summer disrupted his build-up to the 2025-26 campaign, and he later lost his place to the returning Jo\u00e3o Cancelo.<\/p>\n
The situation has become even more delicate after academy player Xavi Espart was preferred to both senior options against Elche. With Cancelo now permanently signed, Balde appears to be the most exposed of Barcelona\u2019s left-back options.<\/p>\n
Any move would still require United to meet Barcelona\u2019s valuation, understood to be around $46.7 million (\u00a334.2 million, \u20ac40 million). United\u2019s spending is already set to rise above $200 million for a fifth straight season following the expected arrival of Carlos Baleba, while Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans have also arrived in midfield. Left back, though, remains a clear problem area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United\u2019s left-back search shifts again, with Hall fading and Balde emerging as a possible option.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1017,2019,194],"tags":[180],"class_list":["post-18714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barcelona","category-manchester-united-news","category-newcastle-united","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18714","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=18714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}