Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo wants to stay at the club and the player’s camp is frustrated by leaks around the ongoing contract talks, according to fresh reports.
The future of the 19-year-old is turning into a tiresome saga with journalists queueing up to variously claim that he is edging closer to a departure or, as per TBR Football yesterday, that he wants to remain at Old Trafford long-term.
United fans are all too familiar with a protracted will-they-won’t-they between the club and a transfer target, but having such a soap opera centred on one of their brightest young talents is unsettling.
As relayed by The Peoples Person, The Manchester Evening News boldly trumpeted yesterday that Mainoo’s lack of a settled role could see him sold in the summer.
But less than an hour later TBR Football weighed in with their chief correspondent Graeme Bailey’s claim that “there is now confidence from both sides that Mainoo will sign a new deal.”
Their report continues to explain that lines of communication between the club and the player’s camp have remained open, and talks have been ongoing in recent weeks.
That camp, it is claimed, insist that Chelsea’s interest in signing the England international in January “was never instigated by them.”
According to many, a major sticking point in the contract negotiations between Mainoo and the Red Devils comes down to salary, and the thrust of the MEN’s article yesterday was that compromise in this area was necessary.
Bailey’s information is that “Mainoo’s camp were annoyed by leaks about what a new deal could look like in terms of the player’s weekly salary”, painting an unsavoury picture of United sowing the seeds for a departure which could net them up to £70m.
But TBR wrap up with the heartening claim that sources on both sides have confirmed that they are now “happy with how talks are progressing”, suggesting that resolution could be found.
Certainly fans will be eager to hear that a contract is signed and the young player is tied down for the foreseeable future.
Mainoo is currently out injured, and while it’s true that his strongest role in Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 system is not yet clear he has all the ability, potential and time to grow into whatever sort of player the Portuguese wants.
It is difficult to know who to trust when it comes to reporting on the young midfielder’s situation, and fans shouldn’t be naïve to the idea that the club may well tolerate his sale in order to bring in money to reinvest in the squad.
But it is hard to believe the player himself is holding out on signing a contract with his boyhood club, which has set him up to be its poster boy and next certified Carrington superstar.
Featured image Vasili Mihai-Antonio 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.
