Man Utd ready move for £112.8m-rated Barcelona duo, but Liverpool pose threat with Salah replacement
The Red Devils are gearing up for a big summer on the transfer front as British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe gets to work on rebuilding the Manchester United squad. With cash to spend, and a number of unwanted stars seemingly set to be shipped out, Erik ten Hag’s squad could have a very different look and feel by the time the summer window closes for business.
Of course, a complete transformation cannot happen overnight and Ratcliffe will reportedly focus on the addition of four quality stars during the summer window to help catapult United back among the European elite.
As a result, it has been well reported that Ratcliffe would like to strengthen the spine of his side with a new defender, midfielder and striker coming in.
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However, there is also expected to be movement on the United wings, with Jadon Sancho and Facundo Pellistri both currently out on loan and neither expected to have a future at Old Trafford. To that end, Ratcliffe will likely look both players on.
There are also doubts over the long-term future of another United winger in Antony, who has struggled for form this season and only has one goal and one assist to his name from 28 appearances in all competitions this term.
Having cost United a mammoth £85m from Ajax, United can expect a significant hit on their initial investment if they can find a suitor for the 16-cap Brazil winger.
Man Utd battle Liverpool for Raphinha
As a result, transfer journalist Graeme Bailey is backing United to move for Antony’s international teammate Raphinha, who has reportedly been cleared to leave Barcelona this summer.
The inverted right-winger moved to the Nou Camp from Leeds in summer 2022, for a fee which will eventually reach €60m (£51.3m).
After a bright first season, the 27-year-old has fallen out of favour somewhat this season, scoring just four goals so far.
Now according to Bailey, United are preparing to launch a summer bid for his services and amid claims he has been cleared to leave Catalonia for a fee in the region of €50m (£42.8m).
The winger is close friends with United skipper Bruno Fernandes from their days together at Sporting Lisbon and is thought to have been vocal to those in power at Old Trafford about the possibility of a reunion.
However, news that Barcelona are willing to cash on the winger has seemingly alerted a host of other suitors too, not least Liverpool who potentially also see the former Leeds man as an ideal replacement for their talismanic Mo Salah and amid fresh claims he has “100%” decided to leave this summer.
Arsenal are also being tipped up as potential suitors for 20-cap Brazil attacker.
Man Utd ready to step up hunt for Frenkie de Jong
In addition to Raphinha, Manchester United are also reportedly keen on a fresh summer move to prise Frenkie de Jong to the club from Barcelona.
United spent multiple weeks of Ten Hag’s first summer at the helm chasing the Dutchman, only for the player to stand firm and resist their approaches.
However, Ten Hag’s interest in signing him has never faded and, with Casemiro’s future at Old Trafford seemingly up in the air, talk of a move for the classy midfielder has resurfaced in recent days.
And per a recent report, Ratcliffe has vowed to meet Ten Hag’s request to sign the player despite Barca’s likely demand for a massive €100m (£85.5m) fee.
However, the Daily Star reports that United are willing to go as high as £70m for De Jong and believe Barca’s financial woes could see the offer accepted.
Furthermore, and as reported on Friday, United could also look to offer four stars to Barcelona as part of a swap deal for De Jong.
Alternatively, the Red Devils could loom to take both players off their hands in a combined £112.8m double deal, in a move that would give Barca a quick fix for their bank balance and give United an injection of quality in two positions.
READ MORE: Frenkie de Jong to Man Utd takes big step forward with Mason Greenwood one of four offered in swap deal
Would Arsenal have won the Premier League with Granit Xhaka? And more transfer regrets…
Granit Xhaka is among five players thriving after summer moves from Premier League clubs, who would be better off had they actually stayed…
Bitterness is a huge part of football fandom, and there’s nothing quite like a player leaving your club and being brilliant to bring those feelings of resentment rushing to the surface. On which note…
Ruben Loftus-Cheek
Everyone agreed: a prime Ruben Loftus-Cheek would be quite the player. A physically dominant box-to-box midfielder with excellent technical ability and an eye for goal – what was the catch?
Injuries, mainly. He had a lot of them, as a curiously high proportion of Chelsea players seem to, meaning he was invariably either on the treatment table or working his way back to fitness, and couldn’t be relied upon when various new managers arrived and were assessing the squad. He was essentially a bonus player; a positive afterthought, but an afterthought all the same.
Ironically he played more Premier League minutes in his last season for Chelsea (1,542) than in any of his previous campaigns for the Blues. He wasn’t brilliant, but being anything short of a bit rubbish was quite the feat in that team, and it’s hard to watch Chelsea under Mauricio Pochettino this season without thinking they would greatly benefit from a central midfielder who can beat a player or two with the ball at their feet.
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Even if Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo had set the world alight Chelsea would be missing a player like Loftus-Cheek, who could bounce away from a couple of challenges and drive forward in possession, as N’Golo Kante also used to do in his heyday.
He’s found a home at Milan, which has become something of a refuge for unwanted Chelsea players; Fikayo Tomori, Olivier Giroud and Christian Pulisic are also enjoying themselves at the San Siro. Loftus-Cheek has started 17 of 24 Serie A games this season and was the hero of their Europa League play-off on Thursday, scoring a brace of headers in a 3-0 win over Rennes.
We’re not saying he would have played every game had he stayed at Stamford Bridge – or even most of them – but his exit and form since will be a bitter pill to swallow for Blues fans, who waited so long for the prime Loftus-Cheek to emerge, only for him to be show his most enviable of attributes in a consistent way elsewhere.
And what did Chelsea do with the £15m they got for Loftus-Cheek? They signed Deivid Washington who has played 23 minutes of football.
READ MORE: Mudryk now (un)officially the worst of all 19 Todd Boehly signings for Chelsea
Cole Palmer
Every cloud. Loftus-Cheek’s exit, along with those of multiple others, opened the door for Palmer, who is undoubtedly the best signing of the Todd Boehly and Clearlake reign, and quite possibly the best since Kante joined in 2016. Although Antonio Rudiger, Mateo Kovacic and Thiago Silva will remain in that debate for the time being.
Of all the Under-21 players in Europe’s top five leagues, only Jude Bellingham (28) has more combined goals and assists than Palmer (23) this season. He’s taken the creative burden of an entire football team – one very much in the spotlight owing to both its trophy-laden recent history and extraordinary expenditure – on his young shoulders.
Signed for £40m on deadline day, Pochettino admitted Palmer’s transfer wasn’t his idea, with “one of the sporting directors” clearly of a ‘might as well’ mindset by that point in the window, as they targeted anyone at all who “fits the project”.
Pochettino may well be out of a job had they not made that last-gasp summer signing, such has been Palmer’s impact, and while it’s difficult to look at Manchester City on their seemingly inexorable path to another Treble and suggest they made a grave transfer error, just because they’re brilliant doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be more brilliant without another brilliant footballer.
He left to play football and has clearly played more at Chelsea this season than he would have done for Manchester City. But while many would have doubted whether Palmer would ever be good enough to start for the best team in world football, there will be fewer doubters now – and if the City bosses aren’t already regretting their decision, they will soon come to.
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Cole Palmer and Rico Lewis hold the Champions League trophy.
Jaden Philogene
Ridiculous rabona aside he’s got a delightful habit of making opponents look daft and the game look easy, with eight goals and five assists in the Championship evidence enough to suggest his legacy will be more than that of Askhat Tagybergen, Alou Kuol and Gauthier Hein, previous nominees for the Puskas Award that Philogene will likely be up for this year.
Game time for Aston Villa may well have been hard to come by for the 22-year-old this season given a) how good they’ve been as a whole, and b) the form of both Leon Bailey and Moussa Diaby, but we would suggest given both the frequency and quality of his goal contributions that the Premier League side may well have made his move to Hull a loan if they could turn the clock back.
Deniz Undav
He’s the Bundesliga player of the month for January, with five goals in his last three games taking his league tally to 14 – six more than parent club Brighton’s top league scorer, Joao Pedro.
The 27-year-old managed eight goals for the Seagulls last term, was largely a forgotten man and generally mocked for being un-Brighton-like when he did play, in the sense that he was a new signing and wasn’t outrageously good. But in truth he was barely given a chance, and actually scored more goals per 90 minutes (0.77) than anyone at the Amex.
Roberto De Zerbi may well claim Undav doesn’t suit his style, but goals are goals and the German has proven between spells at Union SG, for whom he got 45 in 70, Brighton and now Stuttgart that he had the knack. Might he follow Dan Ashworth to Manchester United?
Granit Xhaka
Little did we know Xhaka left Arsenal to win a league title. Even given his outstanding form last season, most assumed Arsenal would sign an upgrade in the summer, and while the majority of those people were likely a bit perplexed by Mikel Arteta’s decision to make Kai Havertz his replacement, few would have predicted that by February the Arsenal manager would still be scrambling around for solutions to a problem of their own making on a game-by-game basis.
Havertz, Leandro Trossard and Fabio Vieira have all been used in the left-sided No.8 role this season and none of them have been anywhere near as consistent or effective as Xhaka was last term.
Reverting to his more customary defensive midfield role for Bayer Leverkusen since his £13m summer move, Xhaka has started all 21 of their league games, helping them to take a five-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga table. His form, along with the feeling once again that Arsenal are close but not close enough to Manchester City, begs the question: would Arsenal have won the Premier League had they not sold Granit Xhaka?
The 10 Premier League stars who have lost the most market value since 2021-22
Big-name stars from Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham are among the 10 Premier League players to have seen their market value nosedive over the past two-and-a-half seasons.
Whether it be age, lack of form, an ill-advised transfer or a combination of all three, some big-name players have seen their reputations dented since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
Using data from Transfermarkt, we’ve charted the 10 Premier League players who have lost the most market value since July 2021.
=9. Andrew Robertson (-30million)
The first of two Liverpool entrants on this list, Robertson’s value has fallen by 46.2% since the summer of 2021.
In fairness, the left-back had enjoyed a sensational couple of years at Anfield, winning both the Premier League and Champions League, and had just captained Scotland at their first major tournament since 1998.
He’s still one of the first names on Jurgen Klopp’s teamsheet, but a few injuries and the passage of time have seen Robertson’s value gently meander southwards.
=9. Mason Mount (-30million)
In July 2021, Mount started for England in the Euro 2020 final and was the talisman in Chelsea’s Champions League triumph two months previously. His value of €75million was justified.
But, while the midfielder won Chelsea’s Player of the Season award in 2021-22, the seeds of discontent had already been sewn.
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Todd Boehly refused to offer him a contract extension and Mount’s form nosedived alongside his team-mates as the Blues finished 12th in 2023.
The 25-year-old’s move to Manchester United hasn’t revived his diminished reputation; Mount has largely been injured and it’s difficult to see how he fits into United’s strongest XI.
Even Gareth Southgate, one of Mount’s biggest cheerleaders, has stopped selecting him in his England squads. Here’s hoping Mount can rediscover his form.
=6. Youri Tielemans (-35million)
Tielemans was at his footballing peak in the summer of 2021; the star midfielder at Leicester, he’d scored the winner in the FA Cup final and had the entire Big Six hitching their skirts in his direction.
But the Belgium international flattered to deceive over the next two seasons as the Foxes fell from top-six irritants to relegation.
Still only 26, Tielemans joined upwardly mobile Aston Villa last summer and initially struggled to adapt to life at Villa Park.
He’s shown signs of his best form in recent weeks, but his market value has fallen 63.6% since the start of 2021-22.
=6. Son Heung-min (-35million)
Son is still brilliant, but a combination of age and loss of form in 2022-23 has seen the Tottenham forward’s value dip in recent seasons.
Now aged 31, the South Korea captain isn’t getting any younger, but 12 goals and six assists in the Premier League this year suggest there’s still life in his weathered legs yet.
=6. Mohamed Salah (-35million)
Like Son, Salah’s decreased value is a mixture of an underwhelming 2022-23 campaign for Liverpool and the fact he’s now 31.
Even as his side struggled last season, falling from second to fifth, the Egypt international still recorded 28 goals and 14 assists in all competitions.
And Salah is on course to eclipse those numbers as Liverpool push for the Premier League title. It’s worth noting that Transfermarkt still value him at €65million, the highest of any player on this list.
=4. Casemiro (-40million)
Casemiro was playing for Real Madrid in 2021, not moving to the Premier League until Manchester United lost their first two matches in 2022-23 and panic bought the midfielder for £60million.
The Brazilian enjoyed a successful debut season at Old Trafford, helping United win the League Cup, but there have been times this year when it would appear time has caught up with the serial winner.
Casemiro is still important to United’s midfield and his experience is invaluable in helping Kobbie Mainoo’s development – but his €40million drop feels about right for a player now in his 30s.
=4. Kevin De Bruyne (-40million)
Age and an increasing amount of long-term injuries have seen De Bruyne’s value slip over the past two-and-a-half years.
Since returning from injury in January 2024, the Belgium international has seven assists and two goals in seven appearances. He’s still jaw-droppingly brilliant.
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=2. Raphael Varane (-45million)
Varane’s valuation has tumbled since joining Manchester United from Real Madrid in the summer of 2021.
Injuries haven’t helped, nor has playing in an inconsistent backline that never seems too far away from collapsing even during good runs of form.
The former France international is now valued at €25million by Transfermarkt,
=2. Raheem Sterling (-45million)
England’s golden boy at Euro 2020 has seen his reputation tumble off a cliff since leaving Manchester City for Chelsea in 2022.
While Sterling is capable of flashes of brilliance, he’s been unable to produce any sort of consistency in a struggling side and has lost his place in the England squad.
For a player who will celebrate his 30th birthday in December, time is running out to recapture his former prowess.
1. Timo Werner (-48million)
Werner was already a punchline by 2021 after struggling to justify his £48million price tag at Chelsea. Nobody was surprised when the Germany international returned to RB Leipzig the following year.
What was more surprising was that Werner also failed to catch fire back in the Bundesliga – Leipzig were more than happy to loan the forward to Tottenham in January 2024.
For a player who does a lot of things right, his inability to score consistently condemns Werner to the biggest drop in valuation over the past few years.
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