Man United transfer news: Ins, Outs & I Wants

Take this with a grain of salt as its in the daily fail and metro but they're reporting that we're looking for a long term CB partner for Maguire in the form of Mings, Ake and Romagnoli as the three top options.

As much as i love Romagnoli as a defender (he's a left footed CB as well) and he's probably the most talented CB overall out of the trio (is Mings even a proper CB), i'd say he's not quick enough to cover for Maguire's deficiencies (which is basically speed and being slow off the turn).

I don't know how Mings is an option other than he's athletic, big and strong. Sure he's a decent option but he's not as good as Lindelof and maybe even not as good as Bailly which should be a red flag immediately. Add onto the fact that he's 27, why on earth would we buy him over Ake since both are likely to go down anyway. 

Fee looks like its getting prepared, was around the muppetiers subreddit and they said 82+14 is a possibility (and that once you add up the more improbable clauses it could go up as high as 120 mill, but the 96 mill fee was the more realistic ones).

Van Der Beek is still waiting on Real Madrid and could go there now as James Rodriguez and Isco are on their way out (Rodriguez to Everton, Isco out cause the extension talks broke down). The two replacements talked about are Camivinga and VDB (shame too, i want VDB more than Grealish).

Some good news is that both Smalling and Sanchez are leaving (both loans with obligation to buy). Smalling's deal is 3 mill up front with 17 mill later in 3 installments (yes even i can't believe roma is that broke) so the total is 23 mill (if you include this years 3 mill loan fee). Sanchez's wages will be off the books which should get us 3 players in itself pretty much (good ones) on top of Sancho (or at least, if VDB is off the table, clear up the path for a CAM and quality CB, one would imagine that could be one of three CB's I mentioned above and Grealish/Van Der Beek which would basically fix up most of our issues).

Bailly could be on the list out outgoing CB's as well (that's 4 of them out). Are we going for Milan Skriniar (i really hope so) or something that we need 4 outgoing CB's or are we targeting two incomings instead (a starter and then Rodon as a backup perhaps?, though i'd prefer Salisu for that).

Or we could go all out and buy Skriniar and Gabriel from Lille and just have 4 quality CB's and not be reliant on Tuanzebe somehow remaining healthy. 

Seeing Muppetiers suggesting that Sancho deal all but agreed (well their G5 has), 82.5 mill + 14 mill in achievable add ons, about 20 mill in improbable ones (balon d'or, champions league winner, probably something about if he gets a knighthood idk)

If that's the fee, i'm ok with that, its reasonable enough, if a bit much, but you have to pay for quality I guess. Though the idea would be for him to be our star player for the next decade and starter for up to 15 years potentially (if he finds Cristiano Ronaldo's fountain of youth).

They're also saying that Upamencano, Ake and/or Pau Torres are being looked at (most likely or, if selling Bailly as well, could be and) along with it being VDB which is more likely (i prefer that, VDB was my 2nd choice behind Havertz and since Havertz is Chelsea bound, he'll do nicely as the main backup at 45 mill, gives us enough of a chance to maybe pull in a Buendia or a Szloboszlai once the sales go through)

Szloboszlai especially could be back on the table as AC Milan went back on hiring Raginick so i can't see him going to Milan now and they apparently of 25-30 mill. I'd take a chance of him as the 3rd choice CAM option and the main Bruno backup, he's only 19, reasonably affordable, quiet big and technically already better i'd say than Lingard and Pereira plus actually isn't an idiot.

Its clear that Ole doesn't trust any of our backup attacking mids at the moment (and why should he frankly, they all having glaring weaknesses in their game and Mata is just old at this point).

Dalot is also on the market, I hope he goes and we bring in Aarons from Norwich, let TFM be third string and let him play as a depth option in the centre of the park as well and re-evaluate next summer (and send Laird back out on loan of course).

That Nuno Gomes stuff, it is true as well, just that Benfica are doing their thing and want 25 mill (i.e. the same price it would cost us to bring in Alex Telles more or less), so maybe we're after a left back after all (i feel bad for shaw, but i hope its a starting one honestly).