Man Utd have upped their offer for France international Jules Kounde after Barcelona rejected their first offer, according to reports.

The Red Devils signed five new players in the summer transfer window in the form of Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt, Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte and Noussair Mazraoui.

It was another big outlay on players from Man Utd as they looked to give Erik ten Hag the tools to bring success to Old Trafford but the new recruits have so far struggled to settle into their new surroundings.

And new boss Ruben Amorim will be hoping to get the best out of the five new players after arriving at Old Trafford last week from Sporting Lisbon.

Amorim will have to implement his new 3-4-3 formation during a hectic schedule with concerns he may not have the players he needs to get the best out of his preferred tactics.

A previous report claimed that Barcelona defender Kounde – who can play at right-back and centre-back – was one of his ‘first requests’ on joining Man Utd.

And now reports in Spain claim that Kounde ‘continues to hold a privileged place on Jim Ratcliffe’s agenda’ after a €45m (£37.5m) bid ‘was rejected by Joan Laporta and Deco immediately’.

Man Utd ‘have tried their luck again’ and have ‘significantly improved this proposal, aware that the French international has increased in value thanks to the incredible performances he has performed under Hansi Flick’.

The Red Devils are now ‘willing to put on the table a total of 68 million euros (£57m)’ in order to land the 26-year-old, however ‘the response they have received has been the same’.

Barcelona ‘are not considering any offer that may come for him’ and ‘believe that there is no one on the market right now who can replace the defender’.

MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365…
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Amorim has been left with a squad currently placed 13th in the Premier League with only Crystal Palace, Southampton and Everton scoring fewer goals this season.

When asked whether Ten Hag should have been sacked in the summer, former Man Utd striker Teddy Sheringham told Best Offshore Sportsbooks: “At the end of the day, we had enough of Ten Hag. I said he should have been gone ages ago.

“I’m surprised he lasted that long, especially with where he’s got Man United in the league. The Premier League is what it’s all about for Man United, for my liking. I know he won the FA Cup with one outstanding performance, but he should have gone in the summer.

“The decision to appoint Ruben Amorim is not before time. It looks like they’ve picked the best man, the right man for the job to come in. They must have thought long and hard about it, about where they were going to go. They got an extra two or three months to find the right man after clearly having doubts about Ten Hag in the summer.

“With the decision to bring him in, obviously there’s a few months gone in the season. It’s not the end of the world, that they’ve got a new manager in now. Things change very quickly. Everyone’s saying Man United are miles off of being the top club that they used to be, but if a manager comes in and gets it right, it can all change at Manchester United.”

When asked to pick one moment which epitomised Ten Hag’s reign at Man Utd, Sheringham added: “There were so many horrible moments under Ten Hag’s management. The Champions League capitulations when in front. The poor signings.

“If I had to pick one moment that summed up his failings at Manchester United, then I would go for the FA Cup semi-final performance against Coventry. It was a game where United are in total control and then from nowhere the wheels came off, the doors came off, the bonnet came off, everything came off and they were lucky to come through that and get to the final.

“The writing was on the wall there. You’re playing against a lower league team that you should canter to victory against; see out the game without a doubt. They couldn’t do it. That was a massive thing for a Manchester United team to lose their way in that game.”

Arsenal are supposedly interested in taking Real Madrid playmaker Arda Guler on loan, as they did with Martin Odegaard, and we wondered which player each Premier League club would end up with if they just copied their most fruitful strategy exactly…

Arsenal: Arda Guler (Real Madrid)
Feels like this would be more of a coup as Arda Guler is hot property while most expected Odegaard to be a bit of a flop. In truth, he became Edu’s finest hour.

Aston Villa: Neto (Arsenal)
Hey, we didn’t think Emi Martinez would win two Yashin Trophies on the bounce either.

Bournemouth: Rob Dickie (Bristol City)
Antoine Semenyo was Bristol City’s second-most valuable asset (£8m) after Alex Scott (£17m), who Bournemouth also poached soon after the winger, and centre-back Dickie is currently the Championship club’s second-most valuable asset. Unfortunately not nearly as valuable at £2m.

Brentford: Thierno Balde (Troyes)
A 22-year-old right-back who came through the PSG academy and despite a terrible run of injuries over the last couple of seasons, is the most highly valued player (£2m) at second-tier Troyes, like Bryan Mbeumo ahead of his move to the Gtech five years ago.

Brighton: Yan Matheus (Yokohama F Marinos)
Googling which of Kawasaki Frontale’s players are currently doing a university thesis on dribbling yielded no results, so we instead selected Yan Matheus as we assume Brighton, like aficionado Kauro Mitoma, would be fond of the player who has completed the most dribbles (132).

Chelsea: Oscar Bobb (Manchester City)
They literally tried to sign The Next Cole Palmer from Manchester City in the summer.

Crystal Palace: Dennis Kirkin (Sunderland)
Eberechi Eze was the player with the third-highest WhoScored rating in the Championship, behind Said Benrahma and Matheus Pereira, before his transfer to Crystal Palace. Kirkin is currently third behind Alfie Doughty and Harrison Burrows.

Everton: Luca Koleosho (Burnley)
A winger signed from Burnley after relegation to the Championship, much like Dwight McNeil. One we could genuinely see happening.

Fulham: Paul Dummett (Wigan)
We would be a bit surprised if the 33-year-old is being linked with a £40m move to Liverpool in four years’ time.

Ipswich: Reigan Heskey (Manchester City U21)
Quite a bit younger than Liam Delap when he made the switch to Portman Road, but 16-year-old son of Emile scored a hat-trick and claimed an assist having come on at half-time against Norwich in just his second appearance.

Leicester: Ronan Coughlan (Fleetwood Town)
140 Premier League goals incoming.

Liverpool: Christian Pulisic (AC Milan)
Right winger who flops at Chelsea moves to Serie A and rediscovers his groove.

Manchester City: Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting)
Why have one Goalbot-3000 when you can have two?

Manchester United: Pedro Goncalves (Sporting)
Bought by Sporting to replace Bruno Fernandes and if anything he’s outstripped the Red Devils captain while playing under the new Red Devils manager.

Newcastle: Rayan Cherki (Lyon)
The Magpies are very reasonably concerned that the last Lyon star they bought is about to be the solution to Manchester City’s midfield problem.

Nottingham Forest: Breno Bidon (Corinthians)
Arsenal are among the Big Boys credited with interest in the teenage midfielder, who can expect to use Nottingham Forest as a stepping stone.

READ MORE: Ten Small 12 Premier League stars catching Big Eight eyes in 2024/2025

Southampton: Jahmai Simpson-Pusey (Manchester City)
Roy Keane has three more daughters.

Tottenham: Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen)
Spurs have neither the capital nor the status to land him but he should perhaps reconsider his inevitable move to Manchester City given the last most highly valued Leverkusen star has managed 252 goal contributions for Tottenham.

West Ham: Mohamed Belloumi (Hull City)
Hull City’s best player, as Jarrod Bowen was before he moved to the Hammers. But unlike Bowen, Belloumi was not taught history by my mother in Leominster, Herefordshire. To the best of my knowledge, at least.

Wolves: Himad Abdelli (Angers)
An Algerian international set to be the ‘first signing’ of the next Manchester United manager (or maybe the one after that) in three years’ time.

New Man Utd boss Ruben Amorim is hoping to sign Inter Milan striker Lautaro Martinez in a swap deal for Joshua Zirkzee, according to reports.

The Red Devils sacked Erik ten Hag after a terrible start to the new Premier League season with the Dutchman leading them to just three wins in their opening nine matches.

Ruud van Nistelrooy put four more points on the board in the two Premier League matches since Ten Hag’s departure by beating Leicester City and drawing with Chelsea.

Man Utd moved quickly to bring in Ten Hag’s permanent successor in Amorim with the Portuguese coach arriving in Manchester last week after winning his final match as Sporting Lisbon manager 4-2 against Braga.

And there are already plenty of rumours about which players could arrive in the next couple of transfer windows as the Red Devils look to give Amorim some support.

There are some doubts as to whether Amorim has the right players to suit his 3-4-3 formation, which he preferred to play at Sporting, while there are serious questions about the strikers at Man Utd.

The Red Devils spent a lot of money to bring Rasmus Hojlund and Zirkzee to Old Trafford but the Man Utd duo, although still early days, have so far failed to live up to their exciting reputations.

MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365…
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Zirkzee is failing to impact matches as hoped with one goal and one assist in 11 Premier League appearances this season.

Previous reports have claimed that Zirkzee is ‘on the exit ramp’ at Old Trafford under new boss Amorim with the Netherlands international unhappy with his playing time.

Reports in Spain now claim that Man Utd and Inter Milan ‘plan to make a swap deal that could end up with Lautaro Martinez in England’.

The Argentina international is said to be the Red Devils’ ‘main objective’ as they search for a prolific striker with Martinez scoring 135 goals in 297 matches for Inter.

Man Utd and Amorim ‘plan to present a proposal that includes 60 million euros (£50m) plus the permanent loan of Joshua Zirkzee’ with the deal allowing ‘the Italian club to secure a replacement with a future while obtaining a significant income’.

Inter ‘seem to think the offer fits into their plans, as it would allow them to earn a considerable amount of money and cover the possible departure of Martínez without weakening the squad’.

The report adds that ‘both parties are working to close an agreement that could become one of the big moves of the next transfer market’.

“I’m not hammering him,” said Gary Neville, before embarking on criticism of Marcus Rashford that was always going to escalate.

Ballroom glitz
“I’ve got no problem with him going away in the international break and I’ve got no problem with the clothes that he wears, he can wear whatever he wants, the only thing I would say, and I’m saying this very calmly as I don’t want a ‘Neville hammers Rashford’ to be honest with you, as I’m not hammering him,” said Gary Neville.

Oh my sweet summer child.

As we open the MailOnline football homepage, this is the headline:

Gary Neville dubs Marcus Rashford ‘unprofessional’ as he rips into Man United star’s glitzy US trip to watch basketball with pal from Belfast tequila bender – and takes aim at jet-setter Casemiro too

Has he ‘ripped into Man United star’s glitzy trip’? Nope. Did he mention the Belfast tequila bender? Did he balls. Did he even call him ‘unprofessional’? Nah.

As for ‘takes aim at jet-setter Casemiro too’…Neville actually says “this is on Casemiro more than Rashford”. But then Casemiro has not been seen sporting a ‘glitzy new set of grills’, which is something nobody should ever write in supposed football coverage.

Neville might say he didn’t want to see such headlines but he knew exactly what would happen as soon as he started even vaguely criticising Rashford. The right-wing press dislikes Rashford and his child-feeding, unashamedly-being-black-and-rich ways and will always jump at the chance to criticise him for his behaviour.

Neville did not reference that Belfast bender and clearly had no interest in who he was holidaying with in the US, but he didn’t have to; the Mail and their ilk are more than happy to connect the dots and the picture is of a man in ‘a black t-shirt, black leather trousers and a white Louis Vuitton coat’ amongst ‘many stars of the entertainment world’ when he presumably should have been holidaying in Blackpool in a sensible jacket.

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Any Portland in a storm
What’s incredibly odd about Gary Neville’s quotes on Marcus Rashford is his bizarre insistence on talking about him being in Portland when he was clearly in New York at Madison Square Garden.

“I’m not that wound up about Rashford and Casemiro going over to the United States, but what I’m asking is, if you’ve got a four-day break, Portland is a 12-hour flight and an eight-hour time difference, your jet lag is bad, and you feel a bit [rough].

“They went to Portland, and I’m asking the question based on professionalism – you’re playing badly, the team are losing, your 13th in the league, and there is a new manager coming in – would you choose that trip as a break to recharge your batteries? That’s not a recharging trip. It’s not right that.”

It’s absolutely not right, Gary. But the ‘glitzy’ basketball game Rashford attended was in New York, which is about eight hours away with five-hour time difference. Not the same place.

The confusion has seemingly arisen because some old images of Rashford training with Portland Timbers have resurfaced online. Mediawatch can find no suggestion that Rashford went to Portland last week. Until now…

‘Gary Neville has blasted Marcus Rashford’s decision to spend the first half of the international break on holiday in the United States after he was spotted at a basketball game in Portland’ – Daily Express.

Nope.

In that report, the Express even write that Neville is ‘mistaking New York with Portland’; they knew and yet just went with the line that Neville has ‘blasted’ Rashford for going to Portland.

And on Liverpool.com (because obviously this is connected with Liverpool):

Gary Neville has been forthright in criticizing Marcus Rashford for opting to take a holiday to the U.S. during the international break, having popped up courtside at a basketball game in Portland.

Rashford and teammate Casemiro spotted enjoying their time in the States, while other Manchester United teammates reported early to greet new gaffer Ruben Amorim at Carrington.

Rashford’s underwhelming tally of just four goals this season already had some fans grumbling, and sightings of him at Madison Square Garden rather than grafting on the training ground only fueled fan frustrations.

Madison Square Garden is definitely in New York, guys; Portland is literally on the other side of the country.

It looks very much like Neville got confused; if you blithely quote his confusion then that makes you ten times worse.

Enjoy yourself
This is some sneaky nonsense by the way…

Rashford and teammate Casemiro spotted enjoying their time in the States, while other Manchester United teammates reported early to greet new gaffer Ruben Amorim at Carrington.

The only Manchester United players who ‘greeted new gaffer Ruben Amorim at Carrington’ were the injured Luke Shaw, Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount and Toby Collyer.

Because they weren’t given a few days off to do what they pleased – as long as they didn’t fly to New York/Portland – like Rashford and Casemiro.

And both Rashford and Casemiro were back to be worked by Ruben Amorim in his first training session on Monday. Exactly as planned.

New Man Utd boss Ruben Amorim now knows which players won’t fit into his 3-4-3 system at Old Trafford after his first few training sessions, according to reports.

The former Sporting Lisbon manager took his first training session on Monday with many of his first-team players still away on international duty.

Amorim officially took over on November 11, replacing former Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag, who led the Red Devils to a disastrous start to the new Premier League season.

And now the Portuguese head coach has a big job on his hands to turn fortunes around at Old Trafford with Man Utd currently 13th in the Premier League.

The Red Devils have won just four Premier League matches all season with only Southampton, Everton and Crystal Palace scoring fewer goals than Man Utd so far this season.

It is unclear whether Amorim will get any help in the January transfer window as he looks to get his squad up to speed with his tactics and philosophy.

And now The Sun claim that Amorim has been ‘stunned by the size of the job on his hands after the first training sessions’ at Man Utd this week.

Despite missing a number of players because of international duty and injury, Amorim believes the current squad is ‘bloated’.

‘The new boss believes the expensively-assembled squad is bloated and has already pinpointed a number of individuals who he does NOT believe will fit into his 3-4-3 high-energy style of play.’

The report adds that Amorim was shocked by the lack of intensity from the players:

‘But the former Sporting Lisbon boss could not believe the lack of speed and intensity.

‘During the first sessions this week, Amorim was constantly having to tell the players to pick up the pace — and this has continued through the week.’

MORE MAN UTD COVERAGE ON F365…
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Despite that, new Man Utd boss Amorim has been pleasantly ‘surprised’ by the ability of some of the players considering their poor position in the Premier League table.

‘On the positive side, Amorim has also been surprised by the quality of some players at his disposal despite United’s lowly 13th position in the Prem.’

Scoring goals has been a particular concern this season with Joshua Zirkzee, Rasmus Hojlund and Marcus Rashford all scoring just one Premier League goal each this term.

Man Utd have been heavily linked with Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres and former Red Devils defender Gary Pallister reckons the Swede could be the “natural goalscorer” they need.

Pallister told TG Casino: “I think Manchester United will keep looking at that centre-forward position as an area they can strengthen.

“Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee have both been there, but I’m not sure Zirkzee is an out-and-out number nine and Hojlund is still learning. At the end of the day, their centre-forwards aren’t scoring enough goals and it’s been an issue recently.

“We’ll see whether that’s a position Ruben Amorim will be able to address in January and whether he’ll be able to bring Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting in with him in the near future.

“He’s certainly enjoyed scoring a lot of goals In Portugal and for Coventry over the past couple of years and Manchester United have been waiting to have a natural goalscorer up front for a few years now, so he fits the bill in that respect.”

Manchester United fans would not be against the sale of Marcus Rashford if he fails to perform under new head coach Ruben Amorim, says Jamie O’Hara.

Rashford was outstanding in Erik ten Hag’s first season in charge, scoring 30 goals and providing 11 assists in 56 appearances in 2022/23.

After such a prolific year, the 27-year-old’s numbers dropped significantly in 2023/24, only finding the back of the net eight times in 43 matches.

His form this season has been subpar as well. In 18 appearances across all competitions, Rashford has scored four times, netting only once in 11 Premier League encounters.

Man Utd fans are losing patience with their academy graduate, who has over 200 goal contributions in 420 appearances for his boyhood club.

Rashford’s poor form saw him lose his place in the England squad, missing Euro 2024 after the Red Devils recorded their worst finish in Premier League history.

Their eighth-place finish, combined with a woeful start to 24/25, saw Erik ten Hag lose his job.

Amorim was swiftly appointed as the club’s new head coach and one of his biggest missions is getting a tune out of Rashford.

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Why can’t Amorim win Man Utd a trophy this season? – O’Hara

Former Tottenham midfielder O’Hara thinks Rashford’s game has lost its “edge” and that he is now playing for his future at the club, though we all know it will be very difficult to shift him and his extortionate salary.

“Marcus Rashford needs to reignite the fire in his belly to be the best player on the pitch,” O’Hara said. “That’s his biggest problem – he’s lost that hunger and edge to him.

“I’m thinking that he’s on £350,000 a week and he’s been at United for years, so maybe that hunger isn’t there anymore.

“Ruben Amorim has to get him firing quickly, or there’s only one option left – to sell him. And honestly, I think a lot of United fans wouldn’t mind that if he doesn’t find his spark and start delivering again.

“Rashford doesn’t need a specific formation to help him – it’s not rocket science. He’s an inside forward, plain and simple. Get him running, working hard, playing with a smile, and enjoying his football.

“The issue isn’t where he plays – it’s about his work rate and confidence.”

After winning a trophy in each of Ten Hag’s full seasons at Old Trafford, O’Hara thinks Amorim can bring in more silverware this term.

“Manchester United, alongside Real Madrid, are the biggest football club in the world,” he said. “But let’s be honest, since Sir Alex Ferguson left, though, no one’s been able to fill his shoes or bring that same magic.

“It’ll be really interesting to see how Ruben Amorim gets on, but so far, none of the managers since Ferguson have managed to consistently deliver trophies or leave a real legacy.

“Manchester United did, however, win a trophy in each of the last two seasons under Erik ten Hag, yet he still got the sack. Now, they’ve brought in a top manager in Ruben Amorim, so there’s every reason to believe they can win something again. I fully expect them to reach the latter stages of at least one competition this season.

“If Amorim can quickly gel the team, find a system that works, and bring the best out of players like Alejandro Garnacho, Rashford, and Rasmus Hojlund – while keeping Bruno Fernandes effective in midfield – then who’s to say they can’t win a trophy this season?”

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