David Tully Sep 21st 2025
BBC pundit Troy Deeney claims Man United missed a trick by not asking for Andrey Santos in exchange for Alejandro Garnacho.
Speaking on the Football Exchange YouTube channel, Deeney said that the Brazilian would have been a substantial upgrade on what the Red Devils have currently in the middle of the park:
“Andrey Santos, in my opinion, would be their best midfielder by a country mile. I said it to you.”
“That would be one if I’m Man United, I would’ve said ‘we will give you Garnacho, let us loan him with an obligation to buy next year’. I would have made it more difficult for Garnacho to leave.”
Santos was the subject of a £60m bid this summer
The 21-year-old revealed earlier this month that he turned down a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia.
Al-Qadsiah reportedly tabled a bid worth in excess of £60m for Santos, but the midfielder was determined to continue his career in Europe, rather than take the sizeable pay cheque on offer from the Middle East.
Man United need to strengthen in midfield
For one reason or another, the Red Devils opted against bringing in midfield reinforcements this summer. There was concrete interest in Brighton’s Carlos Baleba, but the Cameroon international’s £100m+ price tag was regarded as too steep.
Rather than seek out an alternative target, head coach Ruben Amorim and Director of Football Jason Wilcox opted to reinforce their options in other positions instead. That seems like a poor decision in hindsight, considering their struggles in that area.
While there are some suggestions that a move for Baleba could be revived next summer, that may come too late for Amorim, who is under a serious amount of pressure following a poor start to the campaign.
Read more about the Manchester United First Team Squad for 2025/26 here
David Tully
David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World’s Football News Network.
