Romano confirms development with biggest Man Utd transfer of the summer happening ‘today’
Fabrizio Romano has revealed there’ll be big developments over Carlos Baleba’s transfer to Manchester United ‘today’, while he’s also dropped a hint on how many more signings INEOS will make.
Man Utd always intended to sign three new central midfielders this summer, even after failing to offload Manuel Ugarte when the Uruguayan tore his ACL at the World Cup.
Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos signed on the dotted line in mid-July. And on Wednesday, news broke of Man Utd thundering towards an agreement to sign Brighton’s Carlos Baleba as the final piece of the puzzle.
United bid £60m plus £5m in add-ons for the 22-year-old. The offer was rejected by Brighton, though all sources are aligned in reporting this is now a deal that will get done.
On the subject of cost, our colleagues over on TEAMtalk expect the final number to be around the £70m mark. At that price, Baleba will comfortably be Man Utd’s most expensive signing of the summer so far, easily surpassing the £35m paid to sign Tielemans and £50m for Santos.
What’s more, personal terms were actually agreed with Baleba way back in August of last year when Man Utd first made attempts to sign the player. That agreement with Baleba remains valid and in place.
Overnight, transfer guru Fabrizio Romano provided the latest on Baleba’s situation. When reporting on YouTube, he noted Man Utd will resume talks with Brighton ‘today’ (Thursday), and the expectation is a club-to-club agreement will be the end result of those discussions.
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Man Utd to seal Carlos Baleba transfer today?
“The expectation is to see today, Thursday, for Man Utd returning to the table for negotiations and try close the deal for Carlos Baleba,” said Romano.
“So let’s see if it’s going to happen this week ahead of the Premier League opening matchday, but the deal is absolutely well underway for Baleba to Man Utd.
“There is an expectation they will reach an agreement quite soon. The agreement with the player is fully done and completed with his agents.
“The dream of the player is very clear. Baleba has been pushing and pushing to go to Man Utd.
“One year ago I told you the deal was not possible at that time because Brighton didn’t want to open doors for Baleba to join Man Utd.
“But I told you to keep an eye on 2026 because Man Urd are in love with the player, and they’ve decided to go for him.
“Now, the deal is on the right way and the expectation is to get it done.”
Taking to X on Thursday morning, Romano again insisted there’s confidence at Man Utd they will get the green light to sign Baleba sooner rather than later.
He wrote: ‘Manchester United set to return to table of negotiations today with Brighton for Carlos Baleba.
‘Confidence since yesterday to get the deal done for the midfielder.’
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Man Utd want two more signings after Baleba
After Baleba, the Red Devils plan to sign a new left-back and if Joshua Zirkzee departs – which is a distinct possibility – a new striker will be added too.
Explaining the situation, Romano said: “This is absolutely not over [after Baleba]. This is not over because Manchester United are expected to do more.
“Man Utd are moving on different targets, so I don’t think Man Utd in the market will be closed after Baleba.
“United keep looking at the left-back position, and we have to see what’s going to happen in the striker position if Joshua Zirkzee leaves.
“So for Man Utd it’s still going to be busy.”
