Manchester United ‘shock bid’ rejected but ‘boost’ makes £80m Jackson signing inevitable

Manchester United are free to sign Nicolas Jackson once the ‘floodgates’ suddenly and randomly open, but their ‘shock bid’ for Emi Martinez was rejected.

Life of Bryan
Beyond the insider stories on the Bryan Mbeumo transfer which essentially amount to the two clubs involved leaking information in an effort to prove how they got the best deal, there is little to glean from a move everyone knew was eventually going to happen weeks ago.

But Martin Lipton of The Sun does bring a fresh pair of eyes and interesting new thought as to what it all means:

‘THE overseas route resulted in the worst season in more than half a century.

‘Now Manchester United have made a major transfer strategy change.

‘But if this one doesn’t work, then questions will have to be asked about the entire state of English football’s biggest club.’

You heard it here first: if Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha don’t fix everything then perhaps it might be time to finally accept something has gone wrong at Manchester United.

Sorry Nic Jackson, oh
The focus inevitably now turns to what Manchester United might do next in the transfer window.

While the obvious answer would be ‘actually shift members of a Bomb Squad whose market value have been decimated to the point of being basically unsellable‘, it turns out they will just plough on with signing that centre-forward they need.

And who better than Nicolas Jackson? A fair few players, sure. But really none are nearly as fun as thinking about Jackson leading the line at Manchester United.

And The Sun website know this full well:

‘Man Utd in Nicolas Jackson transfer boost with Chelsea striker snubbing two European giants to stay in Premier League’

The ‘transfer boost’? Jackson has turned down Napoli and AC Milan.

The slight snag which might cause a bit of an issue? He will cost at least £80m.

You’re still thinking about the bad news aren’t you?

Shock treatment
Fine, Manchester United can sort out their goalkeeper situation instead with Andre Onana both a) currently injured and b) currently unreliable.

Being only one of those things, the fit and healthy Emi Martinez is a prime candidate to replace him. We know this because he has been on Manchester United’s radar for absolutely ages, even before speculation again became rife at the end of last season and well into the summer.

Despite that, Manchester United floating ‘the prospect of a loan for Martinez’ over the weekend is described as a ‘shock bid’ to ‘sign’ him by the Daily Mail.

Manchester United do a lot of shocking things in the transfer market; proposing a loan move for an available player in a problem position is low down on that list.

It also wasn’t even technically a ‘bid’ going by their description of a brief chat between executives.

The Mail themselves did a story about Manchester United’s possible interest in Martinez on June 20. A month seems like long enough for the ‘shock’ to set in.

But if you also stick that rumour through the Daily Mirror website headline machine we get this:

‘Man Utd fail with remarkable transfer offer for Aston Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez’

Again, asking a rival club if they would open to loaning one of their players does not feel particularly ‘remarkable’ but clearly Mediawatch is doing something wrong here.

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Flood you rather
And ultimately Manchester United will at some point find that their next transfer moves are blocked for as long as Marcus Rashford and friends are not shifted.

In among all this movement is hope from the Manchester Evening News, who say the club ‘now must address the futures of Alejandro Garnacho, Antony, Jadon Sancho, and Tyrell Malacia to offset incomings’ after offloading Rashford.

Moving Garnacho on is ‘at the top of the transfer agenda’ as he ‘retains the highest value’ – although there is no mention of his asking price dropping further to £40m.

Antony succeeded in ‘creating a market for himself’ on loan at Real Betis – although there are no bidders willing to meet his valuation.

Manchester United ‘will also look to negotiate a permanent deal for Jadon Sancho and the Italian press claim Juventus are advancing’ – although those talks have slowed according to that same Italian press.

The club will also ‘get peanuts’ for Tyrell Malacia – although from whom remains unclear.

But Rashford is about to join Barcelona so ‘it’s hoped the floodgates will now open for the other exits’. It is just not made explicitly clear quite why loaning the best of those five exiled players out will suddenly open the ‘floodgates’ necessary to convince anyone Garnacho or Antony are worth the trouble and money.

Alexander the great
Some wonderful headline mischief from the Daily Mirror website here:

‘Alexander Isak to board flight this week with stance over Liverpool transfer made clear’

He will indeed be flying to Singapore with the rest of Newcastle’s pre-season tour squad. And it turns out they still don’t want to sell him.

We don’t talk about Hugo
‘Why Hugo Ekitike ‘rejected’ Manchester United in favour of Liverpool as £79m transfer nears’ – Liverpool Echo.

‘Because he isn’t an idiot’ – Mediawatch.