Mohamed Kader Me\u00eft\u00e9 is reported to be on the verge of joining Al Hilal after the Saudi Pro League club agreed a deal with Rennes worth in the region of \u20ac30 million (\u00a326 million, $35.9 million), per Fabrizio Romano. The move deprives Manchester United of one of the few targets they were linked with for January.<\/p>\n
Reports acknowledged \u201capproaches\u201d from Premier League clubs, but Me\u00eft\u00e9 is thought to have seen the chance to work under Simone Inzaghi in the Middle East as the \u201cideal step\u201d in his development. January is shaping up to be a period of consolidation rather than expansion for United.<\/p>\n
The Red Devils dropped to a lowly eighth on this year\u2019s footballing rich list. Without European competition to call upon, the club\u2019s revenues will fall further in the next set of accounts, limiting spending power. The financial reach of the brand means United will not be entirely cash-strapped\u2014more than \u00a3200 million was splashed on just three forwards last summer\u2014but there are clear constraints.<\/p>\n
Ruben Amorim expressed his frustration before his departure. \u201cI have the feeling that if we have to play a perfect 3-4-3 we need to spend a lot of money and need time,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m starting to understand that is not going to happen so maybe I have to adapt.\u201d At his farewell press conference he added: \u201cEvery department, the scouting department, the sports director needs to do their job,\u201d and \u201cI will do mine for 18 months and then we move on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Carrick, now interim coach, has at least one week to prepare for each of United\u2019s remaining 15 matches with the players available. There has been continued talk of Kobbie Mainoo, Joshua Zirkzee and even Bruno Fernandes leaving in January, but if there are no incomings United are hardly in a position to willingly weaken their own hand.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to the summer, United\u2019s attacking depth, reinforced last year, shows in the numbers: second in the Premier League for actual non-penalty goals and expected goals, and top of the division for shots and shots on target. Casemiro will have to be replaced, with Elliot Anderson, Adam Wharton and Carlos Baleba considered the likeliest candidates. Replacing Bruno Fernandes would be risky, though this may be the last summer to cash in on the talismanic playmaker, who has left the door open to an exit after the World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Me\u00eft\u00e9 looks set for Al Hilal after a reported \u20ac30m agreement, leaving United’s January options thin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1410,179,1163],"tags":[216,342,939],"class_list":["post-6332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-al-hilal","category-manchester-united","category-transfers","tag-adam-wharton","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332","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=6332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}