Two years ago it seemed as though the Old Trafford hierarchy had blundered badly by allowing David Gill to leave at the same time as Sir Alex Ferguson before handing the transfer reigns over to the seemingly hapless Edward Woodward. Last season saw a huge improvement in transfer efforts by Woodward as the likes of Radamel Falcao, Angel Di Maria, Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera were signed over the course of the window.
This Summer United have again attacked the transfer window with vigour, especially over the past 24 hours which has seen two midfielders join the club. The acquisitions of Morgan Schneirderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger isn’t the end of the Reds Summer transfer dealings.
The Guardian notes:
Paris Saint-Germain have received encouragement from Manchester United that their pursuit of Ángel Di María can be successful this summer as the French champions seek to make amends for missing out on the Argentina winger a year ago when he left Real Madrid.
PSG are free to re-enter the transfer market aggressively following the relaxation of Uefa’s financial fair play (FFP)regulations and are understood to have formally contacted United to inquire about the availability of Di María, their principal target. The £59.7m British record signing, who arrived from Real Madrid last summer, endured a difficult first season at Old Trafford and United, bolstered by the arrival of Memphis Depay and Bastian Schweinsteiger, are now prepared to think of allowing the 27-year-old to leave.
The French champions, who had courted Di María a year ago only for FFP to restrict their ability to compete for his signature, are expected to lodge a formal offer of around £47m for the winger, who is believed to be open to the move but will seek wages of around £185,000 a week after tax at Parc des Princes.
Di Maria hasn’t settled well in Manchester- not helped by an attempted break-in at his home- and now may be the time for the Reds to cash in on the former Real Madrid star before his stock really plummets. £47 million for a player who may not even be first choice next season makes a lot of sense for United and could fund an attempt to bring in a world class striker.
welcome sneiderlien
United seem to be paying a high premium on purchases at the same time as taking huge hits on the Nani and RvP sales and will presumably let Hernandez, Rafael and Evans go for less than their full worth. Extracting top dollar and getting value for money obviously isnt a big factor in Woodwards tactics but already having another 2 or 3 players to secure whilst taking another huge loss on di Maria will surely mean Woodward has to compromise somewhere. I would also argue that Gaitan would be a major step down from di Maria and prove to be a false economy. Reus, if available, would only be a very slight step down from Di Maria but a significantly better replacement than Gaitan; as a bonus he would increase the German quotient in the squad, thus making the pursuit of other German players, such as Muller, a little easier in the future.