Marcus Rashford’s move to Barcelona is almost complete, but United have one last amendment they want added to the contract.
It had been a slow start to the window for Manchester United, both in terms of incomings and outgoings, but this week has started to see major progress.
Ruben Amorim has finally got his second forward target in Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo. The Cameroonian international is set to start his medical to complete his transfer today, with the 25-year-old already being photographed at the club.
Furthermore, Academy graduate Marcus Rashford has received the famous Fabrizio Romano “here we go” regarding a loan move to Barcelona. Rashford had spent the latter half of last season out on loan at Aston Villa, but the Birmingham side decided against making the move permanent.
Barcelona will have the option to buy Rashford at the end of the loan for a fee of around £40 million. While the deal looks set to be completed soon, there are just a few hurdles left for both clubs to navigate.
Last hurdles for Rashford deal
While the player’s loan move to Barcelona is almost complete, there are a couple of last sticking points that the two clubs are negotiating before the paperwork can be signed.
According to Sky Sports’ Dharmesh Sheth, the first part of a deal still being negotiated is the proportion of Rashford’s wages that Barcelona will cover during his year out on loan.
While the club would likely have preferred a permanent move so that they could use the transfer fee to bring in new players, offloading a significant percentage of Rashford’s £325,000-a-week salary from the wage bill
Sheth has also revealed that United are looking to implement a compensation clause if Barcelona decide not to make the move permanent. This is similar to when Chelsea had to pay £5 million not to sign Jadon Sancho; however, the difference is that they were buying their way out of an obligation to buy, whereas Rashford’s deal with Barcelona is only an option to buy.
Given all parties desire to see this move take place, it is unlikely that these points will take too much time to resolve, and Rashford could be seen playing in Spain in the very near future.
Amorim’s next target position
Whilst Amorim has started to make headway in restructuring his attack with Rahsford out and Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha arriving, he still has a desire to strengthen his midfield.
Following United’s first preseason friendly against Leeds, one of Amorim’s talking points after the game was that the midfield lacked legs, with the manager saying: “We had a lack of pace, especially in the middle of the park. You can feel that it’s hard to bring the ball. But we created chances”.
With Casemiro ageing, United and some of the midfield options like Toby Collyer and Sekou Kone not quite looking ready yet, this is a position that needs reinforcements.
United have been linked to a number of midfield options, including Atalanta’s Ederson and Sporting’s Morten Hjulmand, a former player of Amorim.
Now that the club has made progress in the forward positions, it needs to start rapidly reinforcing other areas, but it may need to wait for more permanent exits to fund these investments. Amorim’s hope will be that the club didn’t spend too long on the Mbeumo deal, and they still have time to bring in quality midfield targets.
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