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Manchester United’s transfer business for the summer is most likely finished, at least in terms of incoming players. Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matić have landed with a bang; Victor Lindelöf with a whimper. Zlatan Ibrahimović is back with a new squad number, and maybe a new role. The long coveted fourth signing will have to wait, since Gareth Bale refuses to flirt back (Imagine being happy winning trophies every year at the best team in the world. The cheeky bastard!), and United don’t rate Ivan Perišić highly enough to put in a decent bid.
Wayne Rooney is off to confuse and anger Everton supporters. Adnan Januzaj has taken his considerable talent and considerable lack of application to Real Sociedad. Timothy Fosu-Mensah is off to get some games at Crystal Palace (at least until Frank de Boer gets the sack next month). Various youngsters have been dispatched to lower league teams, and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson stooped so low as to accept a loan to Leeds.
At time of writing, Andreas Pereira has not joined Valencia on loan as had been rumored. Chris Smalling (who is really an Arsenal player in spirit), Matteo Darmian, and Ashley Young are all still knocking about for some reason. United are now being linked with a last minute move for Riyad Mahrez, which would be a little strange, but interesting.
What about the transfer business elsewhere? Arsenal have fully become a parody of themselves. Manchester City picking up Alexis Sánchez would be annoying, as he’s a tremendous player. Liverpool losing Coutinho would be more amusing if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s not actually that good anyway. Why are Chelsea suddenly pretending to be an English club again by picking up all these bang average English players? Spurs are always good value for some deadline day shenanigans, but they’ll always be a selling club until they start paying players real money.
Do you expect United to be active late in the window? Any expected - or hoped for - incomings or outgoings?
This will serve as our transfer window live thread, so feel free to chime in to discuss all the transfer nonsense in the footballing world in the comments section.