What is going on with Man Utd's lack of summer signings?
- Published
For the second time in a week, Manchester United have missed out on a midfield target.
On 25 June, Manchester City agreed a club record £116m deal with Nottingham Forest for United's first-choice Elliot Anderson.
Now Tottenham have agreed to pay West Ham £85m for Mateus Fernandes.
United were keen on both. The issue is how much it would have cost to bring them to Old Trafford.
But, as June flips into July, out of contract players such as Casemiro and Jadon Sancho have now left. Others, most significantly Marcus Rashford and Andre Onana, are Manchester United players again.
So far, no-one has come in and, beyond Rasmus Hojlund, whose £38m exit was confirmed in May following Napoli's qualification for next season's Champions League, and those out of contract, no-one has left.
United have agreed a £35m deal with Serie A outfit Atalanta for Ederson but his late call-up to the Brazil squad means his medical will not happen until Carlo Ancelotti's side – who play Norway in the last 16 on 5 July – are out of the competition.
But they want at least one, and possibly two, more midfield options.
They have most recently been linked with Bournemouth's Alex Scott, although Arsenal have already been told the 22-year-old is not for sale and his current club are keen to tie him down to a long-term contract.
A second Bournemouth midfielder in Tyler Adams and Brighton's Carlos Baleba have also been mentioned.
Another name being floated is Felix Nmecha, a former academy player at Manchester City.
Nmecha is well known to United's director of football Jason Wilcox, who was formerly head of City's academy.
The position of Real Madrid's France international Aurelien Tchouameni continues to be monitored but the feeling at this stage is that he will remain at the Santiago Bernabeu.
There are likely to be other names being considered as well.
United sources are adamant their recruitment strategy is the right one and point to the relative success of last summer to prove it.
