United's Thiago deal appears to be dead as Bayern register interest

Pep Guardiola has announced in a press conference today that he wants to sign Barcelona's Thiago at Bayern Munich, and everybody seems certain that a deal will indeed be done.

So, for reasons that we've covered plenty of times, this is a highly unexpected turn of events. Of course, it's not done just yet, but it'd be difficult to see Thiago turning down his old mentor - even if a United move still makes far more sense for him. Javi Martinez will move to centre-back, according to Guardiola, but that still leaves Mario Gotze and Toni Kroos as obvious competition for his spot. Rather than Anderson and Tom Cleverley, as at Manchester United.

Manchester United will now, hopefully, begin a pursuit for some other midfielder. There's a sense the club have put all their eggs in one basket over signing Thiago, but given the nature of the deal, it was quite understandable. The search for 'value in the market' continues apace.