According to Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea are preparing their opening bid for Manchester United winger Alejandro Garnacho, who Napoli also want to sign.

Man Utd are reportedly open to selling Garnacho this month but are not entertaining offers below 60 million euros (£50.5million).

The Argentine winger has been pretty underwhelming in 2024/25, scoring three goals and providing one assist in 21 Premier League appearances. At least he scored and assisted two against League One Barnsley in the Carabao Cup third round.

Serie A club Napoli have identified Garnacho as their top candidate to replace irreplaceable winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who has joined Paris Saint-Germain for around £51m.

Antonio Conte’s side are facing some unexpected competition for the 20-year-old’s signature though, with Chelsea reportedly very interested.

👉 READ MORE: Rashford and Garnacho the latest to fail upwards from Man Utd?

The Blues have plenty of depth in attack but Mykhaylo Mudryk’s future is uncertain after he failed a drugs test.

The Ukrainian winger has not played for the Londoners since a Europa Conference League win over Heidenheim on November 28.

He remains suspended after testing positive for a banned substance in a doping test.

As Mudryk potentially faces a four-year ban from playing, Chelsea are understandably exploring their options in the January transfer window.

Garnacho would fit their transfer philosophy, with Todd Boehly targeting players under the age of 24.

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It will be interesting to see where the Man Utd winger fits into Enzo Maresca’s plans, with Christopher Nkunku, Jadon Sancho, Pedro Neto, Noni Madueke, Cole Palmer, Joao Felix and Nicolas Jackson all already at his disposal.

Despite the high volume of attacking talent in Maresca’s squad, Chelsea are now preparing a bid for Garnacho, says transfer expert Fabrizio Romano.

The Italian journalist confirms the Blues will ‘approach’ the Red Devils having ‘spoke to the player’s camp’ about a move.

Romano wrote on X: ‘Chelsea are set to approach Man United for Alejandro Garnacho, as expected.

‘Napoli remain keen but no agreement at €50m package, rejected by Man United; now also working on [Borussia Dortmund’s Karim] Adeyemi deal as revealed.

‘Chelsea spoke to player’s camp and will now discuss with Man United.’

Should Garnacho join for £60m, he will likely replace £60m Neto, who replaced £60m Mudryk, who replaced £60m Christian Pulisic. Fourth time’s the charm!

That is how much it will cost Chelsea to sign the Argentine international as Man Utd owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe refuses to reduce his asking price.

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Bayer Leverkusen star Jonathan Tah reportedly has ‘one and a half feet’ in Old Trafford and could sign for Manchester United after Barcelona’s late U-turn.

The Bayer Leverkusen centre-back is among the 20 best footballers who could become a free agent this year as he has entered the final six months of his contract.

The 28-year-old has starred for Bayer Leverkusen in recent seasons and his form for the Bundesliga holders has seen him become a regular for Germany.

Tah is linked with several European sides ahead of his contract expiry and a free transfer to Barcelona has been mooted.

A report in Spain claims Tah had ‘everything agreed’ with Barcelona to join the La Liga leaders in the summer, but the club have decided to ‘cancel this agreement’ and ‘forget’ about the defender as Uruaguay international Ronald Araujo closes in on a contract extension.

READ: Rashford and Garnacho the latest to fail upwards from Man Utd?

On Wednesday evening, Fabrizio Romano revealed Araujo and Barcelona have come to terms on a new contact. He said: “Ronald Araujo’s new deal at Barcelona will be valid until June 2031, five year and half contract.

“Green light to the documents and it will be signed on Thursday, tomorrow. Barcelona director Deco got the green light from the player and his camp.”

With Barcelona no longer interested in Tah, the ‘path has cleared’ for Man Utd to sign the centre-back.

‘Despite Hansi Flick still considering Tah a very useful signing, Joao Laporta and Deco no longer have any intention of bringing in a player they believe is not needed at all, and this has left the path clear for Manchester United.

‘United had also shown strong interest in the Germany international, but they had forgotten about him after his deal with Barcelona was leaked. Finally, thanks to Araujo’s continuity, the Leverkusen star will go with Ruben Amorim.’

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Another report in Spain claims Barcelona are ‘confident’ of ‘closing the Rashford operation as soon as possible’ and he could join the Spanish giants as part of a ‘swap’ with former Chelsea star Andreas Christensen.

‘Barcelona’s plan is to close a deal with Manchester United that would include the transfer of Christensen for a figure close to 15 million euros.

‘This entry would allow the Catalan club to free up wages and move forward with the arrival of Rashford, who would arrive on loan until the end of the season with an option to buy that would be negotiated in the summer.

‘Despite United’s interest, Barcelona are still not in complete agreement on the sale of the Dane. Flick values ​​his experience and quality, but his injury history raises doubts. On the other hand, the Blaugrana club believe that the emergence of Pau Cubarsi and the good form of Araujo and Inigo Martínez could make Christensen’s departure less noticeable in the squad.

‘For his part, Rashford is looking favourably at the possibility of joining Barça.’

One of the great truisms of the Fergie era was that from Manchester United the only way was down.

Great players either never left – why would you? – or when they did find themselves forced out, managed out or in rare cases actually did choose to leave of their own accord, generally soon discovered that the grass was rarely greener.

There is one definite and also one arguable exception to this rule that stood for two decades and more: Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham.

But these truly are exceptions to prove a rule. Beckham was the most famous footballer in the world; Ronaldo remains a live contender in any wearying debate around the greatest of all time. And they also both joined Real Madrid.

That’s what it took to step up from United in those days. Being the best or most famous player on earth, and joining the biggest club on earth.

It’s not exactly news to note that Man United now and Man United then are slightly different beasts. Pretty sure we’ve all managed to get our heads round the fundamentals of that concept by now. It has been more than 10 years.

But still, though. Still it remains slightly jarring for those of us who lived through that long period of United dominance, one it truly seemed might never, ever end, to see just how much has changed and just how far they done fell.

It’s not just easy to step up from United now; it’s actively difficult not to. You can now cheerfully fail upwards from United. In the immortal words of Yazz and the Plastic Population, the only way is up.

Marcus Rashford is no United failure. But he has been struggling for some time and finds himself no longer in the manager’s plans. Imagine a player in that situation 15 years ago looking at the possible next destinations and all of them being so much better than Man United. Dortmund. Milan. Literally any other big Premier League club that isn’t Spurs. Actual Barcelona if they can get a bank loan sorted.

And then you get to the actual flops. Alejandro Garnacho isn’t the floppiest flop in floptown but that’s mainly because Antony exists. He has shown glimpses and flashes of brilliance but never the consistent high level that United demands, or at least did.

Where’s he heading? Chelsea. Who, while undoubtedly a club capable of matching United in the basket case sense are currently far better in a football one. And if not Chelsea, Garnacho’s reward for three often forgettable and only sporadically decent years in United’s first team is likely to be finding himself parachuted straight from a Premier League relegation fight to a Serie A title fight.

Even Antony – a literal byword for transfer flop – is set for what is currently at worst a sideways move to Real Betis and some mid-table La Liga fun.

The most recent departures tell a similar story. Scott McTominay is in that Serie A title fight with Napoli where he may yet be joined by a familiar face in Garnacho.

We don’t really even want to start on how lucky Mason Greenwood is for so many reasons to find himself swanning around the upper reaches of Ligue 1 right now.

Jadon Sancho is clearly better off at Chelsea than he was at United; Aaron Wan Bissaka is at West Ham, but let’s just skate past that quickly. And even then, the league table insists it’s not really a backward step.

Many things have died away at Manchester United over the last 10 or 11 years. But one we’d perhaps not truly considered until now is the idea of United as an end in itself for players.

This was a club that was enough for almost anyone. Great players who started here finished here. Great players who arrived here finished here. And if they didn’t it was someone else’s choice and their career had still peaked with United.

United is no longer a final destination, but just another club, just another staging post in a career that can lead on to bigger and better things elsewhere regardless of whether your time at United is good, bad or indifferent.

United appear set to rush through multiple departures before the transfer window shuts. For the likes of Christian Eriksen and Casemiro, whose careers are on an inevitable end-of-the-line slide, their time at United will not be considered their career highlight.

And for those in the early or middle stages of their career there will be expectation now rather than hope that this is also the case for them.

Because Manchester United are now just another football club.

According to reports, former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is eyeing a shock reunion with England international Marcus Rashford.

Rashford and Solskjaer previously worked together at Old Trafford and a reunion at Turkish giants Besiktas has been mooted.

51-year-old Solskjaer was out of work for over three years after exiting Man Utd towards the end of 2024. Earlier this month, he made his return to management as Besiktas appointed the former Norway international.

Solskjaer has enjoyed a dream start at Besiktas as his side hammered Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in the Europa League on Wednesday night.

With the January transfer window open, it was inevitably only going to be a matter of time before Solskjaer’s Besiktas was linked with a raid on Man Utd.

READ: Man Utd breaking news: Marcus Rashford turns up for work again

Solskjaer has already addressed this topic, praising two “very good” Man Utd players.

He said: “I’ve come from Manchester United, so there will be transfer news like this. Casemiro and Rashford are very good players, but I haven’t had any contact with them.”

These comments appear to have fuelled nonsensical speculation linking Rashford with an unrealistic move to Besiktas.

A report from journalist Gokmen Ozcan claims Rashford is a “crazy transfer target” for Besiktas. He claimed: “Besiktas coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s crazy transfer target: Marcus Rashford.

“The Norwegian coach is personally involved in the signing of the 27-year-old left winger, with whom he worked together at Manchester United.”

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Rashford has a couple of more realistic transfer options with FC Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund among the clubs mooted as possible destinations.

However, German journalist Florian Plettenberg has revealed that the Bundesliga outfit are ‘not hopeful’ of signing the England international.

He explained: “Borussia Dortmund are currently not hopeful of signing Marcus #Rashford, while FC Barcelona remain in the race.

“However, #BVB see a potential opportunity if negotiations for Rashford continue to drag on and a chance arises closer to Deadline Day on February 3rd.

“This would depend on Manchester United deciding to offload the player and the transfer package becoming more affordable. #MUFC.”

As for Barcelona, a report from Sky Sports on Wednesday afternoon claimed a move for Rashford this month is ‘looking increasingly difficult’.

‘Sky Sports News understands a deal for Rashford to leave Manchester United in this window is looking increasingly difficult.

‘Dortmund will continue to push but the finances remain a big issue as they would require United to contribute a substantial percentage of his wages.

‘United are understood to be relaxed over the situation. The feeling is that talk of a move has been driven by Rashford.

‘Head coach Ruben Amorim continues to omit him from the matchday squad and has put the onus on the player to fight his way back in.’