Man Utd ‘reject’ deals for Barcelona duo but eye summer move for £51m Newcastle flop
Man Utd have no intention of making any offers for Barcelona duo Raphinha or Ferran Torres this summer, according to reports.
New co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has not wasted any time in making changes since his deal to buy 25 per cent of the club was completed last month.
Man Utd are getting their recruitment department in order
Omar Berrada is coming in as new CEO from arch-rivals Man City while they are stepping up their attempts to agree a fee to allow Newcastle’s Dan Ashworth to become their new sporting director.
There are also rumours that Ratcliffe and INEOS want Crystal Palace’s Dougie Freedman as their new head of recruitment and Southampton’s Jason Wilcox as technical director.
Man Utd fans will be hoping all the changes will lead to better recruitment after a decade of criticism over their poor signings since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club in 2013.
Big-money deals for players like Paul Pogba, Antony and Harry Maguire have seen major questions raised in recent times over who is making the final decision on signings.
READ MORE: Man Utd eye ‘maximum returns’ from £135m-rated duo, City target Toon star
But INEOS hope to have a structure in place to avoid the same amount of mistakes with Spanish publication Nacional insisting that Man Utd have already ‘rejected’ two players this summer.
Barcelona duo Raphinha and Torres ‘are not’ Man Utd targets despite links to the Premier League giants with the Red Devils looking to go down a different road.
Former Leeds winger Raphinha and ex-Man City forward Torres ‘had been placed among the possible objectives’ at Man Utd this summer but ‘the reality is that neither of them interests the board’.
Despite showing interest in Raphinha in previous transfer windows, Man Utd ‘don’t want to know anything about him anymore’ as he ‘continues to devalue himself’.
Torres’ ‘case is different’ with the Spaniard playing well this season but his 11 goals and four assists are ‘not been enough for the English to want to bet on his hiring’.
Former Newcastle man emerges as a target
And another Spanish publication in the form of COPE claim that Real Sociedad midfielder Mikel Merino is being closely monitored by Man Utd.
Sociedad’s talks with Merino, who has a release clause worth £51m in his deal, over a new contract are at a ‘standstill’ with Man Utd, Man City, Juventus and Atletico Madrid looking into the possibility of taking advantage of his circumstances.
Merino, who was linked in April 2022 with a return to the English top flight, joined Sociedad from Premier League side Newcastle after playing just 25 times for them in all competitions.
READ MORE: Premier League improvement table: 1) Liverpool, 14) Arsenal, 16) Newcastle
