Manchester United linked with three players

The Mirror reports that Manchester United are interested in wanging £125 million about this summer in order to secure three players, none of whom seem completely terrible. On that understanding, it is probably best to rule out United’s chances of signing any of them.

The most costly would be Napoli central defender Kalidou Koulibaly. The Senegalese international is available for around £70 million, or maybe 50% more than that, who knows. He would be of use if he can stand up and run around a bit, because those two qualities would make him immediately superior to all of the other defenders at the club.

Another player linked is Nicolas Pepe, Lille’s exciting, quick and technically skillful Ivory Coast international. Around £40 million, apparently, is what it would take to sign him from the Ligue 1 club, though there is competition from Paris Saint-Germain, who may be taking the Bayern Munich approach of nobbling all their domestic rivals by taking their best players.

The Mirror also mentions Adrien Rabiot as a potential midfield signing. With Ander Herrera expected to go to Paris, Rabiot would expect a signing on fee of around £10 million, plus a contract worth £175,000 a week. As ideas go, there have been many worse, so expect that kind of sensible transfer not to happen.

The paper also mentions other potential targets for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with Declan Rice of West Ham, Aaron Wan-Bissaka of Crystal Palace and Jadon Sancho of Borussia Dortmund also targets for a United side that his fast becoming one of the most hopeless in the league. Unless some drastic action is taken, expect to see mid-table mediocrity continue for the foreseeable next seven decades.