Serge Aurier to complete Manchester United move if conviction overturned

Manchester United have agreed a deal for Paris Saint-Germain full-back Serge Aurier, according to The Mirror. The transfer fee is £27m, with wages of £90,000 per week enough to convince Aurier. Aurier is, however, banned from entering the UK because of a conviction for assaulting a police officer, which he is appealing imminently.

There’s no need to go into the right and wrongs of using violence against the police (it’s right, for what it’s worth) here, because I’ve already just done it and I am correct. Nevertheless, it seems like United have a potential bargain on their hands if Aurier can manage to stay out of trouble for the rest of his career. He has the talent and the body for it, but most important would be that he could reject the homophobia that also got him in trouble in the past. We’ve had enough of that with Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand.

The excellent Denis Irwin has talked about Nemanja Matic in terms far more constructive than Gary Neville, explaining how he can free up Paul Pogba to be more of an attacking force this season.

Do you think statistical analysis has a lot to say about potential transfers? Well, if you do, you’re in luck. Not only is that the way that football journalism is heading, all remote, half-analysis based on numbers instead of serious deconstrution of football being played in context, by humans, and also because there’s some maths about Manchester United here.

Tactics boffin Jonathan Wilson has taken a look at the possibilities opened up by bringing Matic to Old Trafford. United are a winger and a defender away from owing the fans a seriously decent showing this season - though they should already be much improved compared to last year’s disappointing effort.

And lastly, you can read about what Ryan Giggs has to say about Romelu Lukaku here.