Manchester United’s Premier League campaign is now underway, but the club still has some deadwood to shift from the squad.
The season kicked off with a 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal yesterday, but despite the result there were many positives for Ruben Amorim to take as new signings Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo impressed.
Away from the pitch, however, the so-called ‘bomb squad’ of exiled players had nothing to do but try and engineer moves away from Old Trafford.
Roma to the rescue
After Marcus Rashford sealed a loan exit to Barcelona, the five-man group of outcasts dropped to four. Alejandro Garnacho looks set to move to Chelsea and Antony is doing everything he can to head back to Real Betis, where he dazzled on loan for the second half of last season.
Jadon Sancho and particularly Tyrell Malacia, however, seemed in real danger of not finding a new employer this summer. In the last couple of weeks, it has emerged that AS Roma have been working on a deal for Sancho, and reports today claim he will “probably” move to the Serie A side.
But the main thrust of the report from Corriere dello Sport today is Roma’s more recent interest in Malacia, and their terms for signing him are not necessarily music to United’s ears.
Malacia on the move?
The report notes that Malacia has been assigned a shirt number at United for the season but remains very much on his way out, with his entourage on the hunt for a permanent exit.
For his part, the player has indicated to Roma that he is keen on the move and is particularly excited about Gian Piero Gasperini’s style of play.
However, Roma have only offered a loan deal with an obligation to buy which is “conditional on the player’s performances” as the club look to cover themselves following Malacia’s lengthy spell on the sidelines through knee injury last season.
Such is their determination not to end up saddled with a player who may spend more time on the treatment table than the pitch, the report indicates that “a purchase regardless of performance and playing time is out of the question”.
The Dutchman’s €10m valuation, should it come to it, is “affordable” for the Giallorossi but they would only seek to meet it if the player proves himself first.
Contract headache for United
The 26-year-old is in the final year of his contract, meaning he will be a free agent next summer. This is a problem with the structure of the deal Roma are proposing, as the Red Devils would need to extend the player’s contract in order to be able to get a fee for him at the end of the loan.
Otherwise, come the end of the season he will no longer be United’s player to sell, so any obligation for Roma to pay becomes meaningless.
The Old Trafford side therefore need to weigh up whether to negotiate a contract extension just to facilitate a loan to Roma, which may not yield a permanent sale should the player not meet the criteria of the agreement.
Worse still, there seems to be no option to extend his current deal by a year meaning the Red Devils would need to agree an entirely new contract to take this gamble.
Little wonder, then, that United continue to talk to other clubs such as Porto and Besiktas, but the report notes that Malacia “would prefer Serie A”.
Featured image Gareth Copley via Getty Images
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
