Manchester United’s business in January discussed

A look at what could occur at Old Trafford this month

Transcript

00:00And looking at the transfer business in general, now obviously, as you mentioned, January can

00:06be quite a hard month to navigate, even for Manchester United. I mean, you know, as soon

00:11as any transfer window opens, there's Manchester United rumours in and out, so I'm sure it's

00:16tough for you as a journalist covering the club sometimes to know what sort of, you know,

00:21valuable news and what sort of isn't, just rumours to get the clicks. But Manchester

00:26United are always involved in so many different stories. Is there any, you know, solid business

00:31that their Ameren could be doing this month, or what's the sort of stance with the ownership

00:35as well? How much will they have to say on business this month?

00:40So we were told right from the offering that United don't really have a transfer budget

00:44this month, in the sense that they're not ruling out business whatsoever, but primarily

00:49it most likely be loan deals or free agents, similar to what we've seen in past Januaries.

00:53We've seen Odin Ogalo come in under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. We then saw Weghorst, Sabitzer,

00:59you know, Sergio Reguilon, Martin Dubravka, those sort of deals we've seen in recent years.

01:04They're the ones I'd expect more than any of this window. If United need to get some

01:08bodies in more than anything, Ruben Amorim would love a left wing back and he would love

01:13a striker. Those are the two positions he wants the most. The issue then is, can you

01:17get someone who's good enough long term this month? If not, you've got to delay it to the

01:22summer, but you could get someone in, you know, again this month. Someone like Sergio

01:25Reguilon, who they had, who can do a job at left wing back, but wasn't the long term solution

01:30there. So they're the two positions United are most likely to add to this month. There's

01:36also an ongoing deal at youth level for Diego Leon, who plays for a Paraguayan club. United

01:41are working on that in the background. There's still hope that can be agreed, but he isn't

01:45allowed to join United until he turns 18 in April anyway. So United could make an agreement

01:50this month for Diego Leon, who's a young Paraguayan left back, but he wouldn't be able

01:53to join until the summer anyway. And because United don't have a budget, it basically means

01:58if they do want to sign anyone permanently, they've got to get rid of players first. Marcus

02:02Rashford, huge incentive to sell him because he's an academy player. So in the new world

02:06of PSR and FFP, it means if United sell Rashford, it counts as pure profit on the balance sheet.

02:12So there's a huge incentive to sell him. Casemiro is another player who could leave this month

02:17interest from Saudi Arabia in him. Again though, Saudi Arabia, just because they've got lots

02:22of money doesn't mean they can give United the fee they want for Casemiro. United maybe

02:26don't want to sell them this summer, this window, sorry, just because it leaves them

02:31light in those two positions. But if they're ever going to get a fee for them, it has to

02:34be now or you've got to give them a new contract. So Eriksen and Lindelof, you know, I wouldn't

02:38stand against selling this month if offers came in. And then there's a whole plethora

02:43of players, people like Joshua Xerxe. United aren't actively looking to sell him, but

02:47if an offer came in that was close to the fee they paid for him last summer from Bologna,

02:51then you sense that they would accept that and they'd give Amirim the chance to reinvest

02:55the money into a player more in his mould as well. So in terms of new arrivals, I'm

02:59not expecting May this month. We know United are looking at Randall Koulamwane at PSG,

03:05but Juventus and Tottenham are looking at him as well. So it's still very much up in

03:10the air and you can expect the likes of Harry Amath and Dan Goal, two highly-rated youngsters

03:14to leave on loan as well.