Rangnick rules out Cavani departure from Man Utd

Ralf Rangnick will not let Edinson Cavani leave Manchester United this month, with the interim manager making his desire to keep the veteran striker clear during their recent discussions.

The 34-year-old has scored 19 goals in 49 appearances for the Red Devils since Paris St Germain’s all-time top scorer joined on a free transfer in October 2020.

READ MORE: The Mailbox has got a case of the BT Sports

Cavani was strongly tipped to leave Old Trafford at the end of last season only to agree a one-year contract extension, but talk has once grown about the striker’s future.

Barcelona have been linked with a January move for the Uruguay international but Rangnick expects him to stay for the remainder of his contract.

“We had quite a few conversations in the last couple of weeks – probably the player with whom I have spoken most,” the United boss said ahead of Monday’s clash with Wolves.

“I told him from the very first day that, for me, he is a highly important player.

“He is probably the only one who can play as a striker back to goal and face to goal.

“His professionalism, his work ethic is just amazing and I told him that I desperately want him to stay until the end of the season. He knows that.

“He also knows how highly I rate him and how highly I respect him, and that was also the reason why I played him (against Burnley) from the beginning together with Cristiano (Ronaldo).”

Asked if he envisaged letting some players leave this month, Rangnick said: “Yes, but it depends and I think you understand that I don’t want to speak about individual players now in the public.

“I know from some players that they would want to leave.

“We spoke about Edi and he knows that I will definitely not let him go. For me, he is a highly important player for the rest of the season, still playing in three competitions, so we will definitely need Edi.

“I would rather have another Edi on top of that but for me it’s clear that Edi has to stay.

“With regard to the other players, yes, our squad is maybe a little bit too big with regards to numbers.

“But we still have Covid, we have three competitions, as I said, and I think we could do with a bigger squad than maybe in times without Covid.”