Manchester United have regularly been linked with French midfielder Adrien Rabiot over the years but a move has never materialised.
We are over a week into the transfer window and Manchester United have signed Matheus Cunha, and are closing in on a deal for Bryan Mbeumo.
But why have there not been links to signing Adrien Rabiot?
It feels like a yearly – or even sometimes six-monthly – occurrence to hear the French midfielder’s name in relation to a potential Old Trafford move.
Rabiot, now at Marseille, looks to be enjoying his football with no intentions to move right now. Still, the links will probably crop up soon.
The two previous summer transfer windows seemed like the closest the World Cup winner came to joining United but he has explained why it didn’t happen in the end.
Rabiot explains key reason why he snubbed United transfer
Rabiot conducted an interview with The Athletic this week and he was asked about his decision to join Marseille over United last summer.
The 30-year-old first explained how an agreement with United was very close back in the summer of 2023, with written offers on the table, but a deal simply fizzled away.
He then detailed how after ‘good talks’ with United last year, he was resistant about the move due to the club’s situation. The Reds had just finished eighth in the Premier League but they did win the FA Cup.
There was also a lot of doubt over the manager’s future, with it being well-known that INEOS were searching for alternatives to Erik ten Hag before deciding to stick with him. He was then sacked in October.
“It really could have happened two years ago, when I was coming to the end of my contract at Juventus and I finally decided to extend by a year,” Rabiot said.
“We had great talks, and there were written offers. But in the end, it didn’t happen.
“Last year as well, when I was free, they came back in again. I had good talks with them again. But it’s true that it was a bit tricky.
“The situation they’re in at the moment… I felt a bit of reticence about whether United were going to be able to go on and achieve great things. Because they’re in a bit of a hole at the moment.”
United still must sign midfielder
United fans will be glad that links with Rabiot should be over now – they will probably still crop up somehow later this summer. He isn’t the player needed at Old Trafford.
Although, on the other hand, United are desperate for a midfielder and there are not many rumours about which player the club are targeting
United’s mistake over recent years was never not signing Rabiot, but it was the attention paid to fixing the long-term issues in the engine room.
Stop-gap signings like Casemiro or Christian Eriksen have now been followed by Manuel Ugarte, who does not seem suitable to start for a successful United side.
If the Reds really want to improve, there must be a quality addition in that area of the pitch in the coming months.
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