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Round-Up: Vidić rates Bailly. Mourinho regrets Schweinsteiger treatment. United linked with Inter midfielder.

In transfer news, you’ll never guess which French attacker is linked to Manchester United today!

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Juventus FC v FC Internazionale - Serie A
Manchester United midfield target?
Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images

Nemanja Vidić rates Eric Bailly. In an interview for ESPN FC, Vida singles out Bailly for praise, identifying the Ivorian as United’s next great defender. “He's aggressive. He has potential, he's young, and he likes to defend. He has the qualities to go even further.” Indeed. Vidić also politely indicates that he doesn’t think Rojo is ultimately good enough, and he damns Jones and Smalling with such faint praise that you can tell he doesn’t rate them much either. I guess he’s been watching the games, then.

Andreas Pereira still sees his future at Manchester United. In an interview with The Club’s official propaganda network, Pereira said: “I always keep in my mind that I’m a Manchester United player and I should do what I’m doing. That is the main aim. I always have this in my mind.” Not sure what that means, but it sounds nice enough. He added that he’s still in regular contact with teammates and coaching staff while he’s on loan at Granada. Whether or not he has a place in the squad next season is open for debate, but there’s no doubting his talent, and it’s good to see that he doesn’t feel forgotten.

José Mourinho regrets being mean to Bastian Schweinsteiger. Mourinho decided to freeze Schweinsteiger out of the squad almost as soon as he took over, likely because he thought United should never have bought the unfit German in the first place. But Mourinho has softened now, and conceded that he should’ve given the midfielder a fairer shake: “So I feel sorry for the first period with him, he knows that. I am happy that he knows because I told him. I will miss a good guy, a good professional, a good influence in training - a very good influence.” Kind words, but those niceties won’t help us when we’re fielding Carrick and Fellaini in a midfield duo tomorrow, will they, José?

Mourinho also added that Phil Jones and Chris Smalling have “long term injuries.” Plus ça change.

In transfer nonsense, United are supposedly after Internazionale midfielder Marcelo Brozović, for the low low price of just £43m! Which is a steal of a deal compared to the £50m Inter want for their other Croatian, Ivan Perisić.

Naturally, there’s another Griezmann story.