Manchester United have reportedly placed two Sporting players on their transfer shortlist following the appointment of Ruben Amorim.
Amorim has two more games in charge of the Portuguese side before taking the reins at Old Trafford and rumours of the club’s transfer targets in January and beyond have been rife as a result.
Star striker Viktor Gyokeres was thought to be off interest but a report claims he’s already rejected the move because United are ‘disorganised, unstable and permanently on fire’. A fair point.
Midfielder Morten Hjulmand and wingers Pedro Goncalves, Marcus Edwards and Geovany Quenda have also been linked, but Amorim preference to play with three centre-backs has led multiple outlets to point to a raid of Sporting’s talented defenders.
Football Insider claim ‘both Ousmane Diomande and Gonzalo Inacio will form part of the shortlist for United’.
It’s further claimed that ‘Amorim will assess the squad and the current crop of defensive options when he arrives in Manchester after completing his duties with Sporting’ but the report will concern current centre-back pairing Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt.
Amorim will have Harry Maguire, Johnny Evans and Victor Lindelof as backups, while Leny Yoro will presumably be pushing for a starting spot once fit.
Despite the inevitable links with Sporting players and an apparent desire of Amorim to bring them with him to Old Trafford, the Portuguese boss insisted in a press conference that he would not be raiding his current club in January.
“I will not take any of Sporting’s players in January. But that’s another story,” he said.
On Gyokeres he added: “Gyokeres costs £100m. It’s very complicated.”
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Amorim may well want to sign some Sporting players but former Everton chairman Keith Wyness insists that United will be “very concerned” about that given the way in which they’ve been burnt by landing so many players that played under Erik ten Hag at Ajax.
Wyness said: “They’ll be very concerned about bringing Amorim’s favourites in.
“This is where Ashworth and Jason Wilcox have got to earn their money. They’ve got to put in place the cohesive style of Man United behind the scenes.
“It can’t be just based on the manager’s opinion. Amorim is obviously a talented manager, but he’s got to realise that he’s only one part of the bigger picture.
“They’ve got to try and avoid making the same mistakes they made with Ten Hag.
“If something goes wrong with Amorim, they can’t lose all the players he brings in.”
