Man Utd ‘reach’ £54m as they bid ‘on Amorim’s orders’ for the new manager’s ‘first request’
Man Utd are prepared to pay £54m to land Jules Kounde from Barcelona as one of Ruben Amorim’s first signings, according to reports.
The Red Devils sacked Erik ten Hag at the end of October after a terrible run of form which saw them win just three of their first nine Premier League matches.
Ruud van Nistelrooy added another four points on the board during his two games in charge at Old Trafford before Man Utd appointed Amorim as Ten Hag’s successor.
Amorim has a big task on his hands to turn around their fortunes with Man Utd currently sitting 13th in the Premier League table after 11 matches.
The former Sporting Lisbon boss is set to take his 3-4-3 formation to Man Utd when he takes charge of his first match at the weekend against newly-promoted Ipswich Town, who beat Tottenham in their last match.
A possible system change has raised concerns that Man Utd will have to dip back into the transfer market in January after spending big sums over the summer on Matthijs de Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee, Manuel Ugarte, Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui.
And reports in Spain claim that ‘on Amorim’s orders’ Man Utd have ‘reached’ €65m (£54m) for Barcelona defender Kounde with the France international one of Amorim’s ‘first requests as soon as he arrived at Old Trafford’.
Man Utd have ‘already prepared a first offensive’ worth €65m but Barcelona president Joan Laporta and sporting director Deco ‘consider him essential’ to their plans.
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Although last summer they ‘did consider selling Koundé if they received an interesting offer, they now want absolutely nothing to do with this possibility’.
Barcelona want his termination clause if they are to let him go and ‘considering that Koundé’s release clause is set at a prohibitive €1billion, it seems unlikely that he could end up at United or anywhere else, so it is an option that can be said to have been completely ruled out.’
There are rumours that Man Utd will have very little money to spend on new players in the January transfer window and former striker Teddy Sheringham was baffled that INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe spent funds on new players for Ten Hag.
Sheringham told Best Offshore Sportsbooks: “It’s good in the fact that the United directors backed their man and gave him money to make signings, but it was so evident from the outside that Ten Hag wasn’t up to the job and it was like, ‘What are you doing? Why are you giving this man more money to spend?’ He’s already wasted a lot of money on players.
“He’s bought a lot of players that are like, ‘Oh, that’s a few quid. Yeah, I’ll go and play for Man United. That’ll do.’ There’s a big difference between wearing the shirt with pride and just nicking a few quid because someone’s paid out a lot of money for you – we’ve had too many players turning up at United thinking that’s that. I’ve made it. That’s not good enough for the standards of Manchester United.”
