Another Benfica player heavily linked with a move to Manchester United, another Benfica player ultimately not going. It's like people have forgotten the never ending transfer sagas of Nicolas Gaitan and Ezequiel Garay. Now Jose Mourinho has another target in mind.
I think one of the best jobs in the world must be as Manchester United's Portuguese scout. Go to loads of games, reccomend some really good players to sign and never have to worry about them flopping because inevitably the Red Devils will fail to actually sign them.
In recent years Gaitan and Garay were signing so many times that when they moved to other clubs I assumed United had to give permission. Renato Sanches was watched over 20 times last season and still the Premier League team failed to make a bid for him!
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This time the club looked certain to sign Victor Lindelof just a short few weeks ago but now that deal has been stalled. However Mourinho has taken the setback well and just set his eyes on a new target and has reportedly offered £32.5million for AS Roma defender Kostas Manolas.
According the Sun, Mourinho has been watching the Greek centre back since May, when he also watched Roma teammate Alessandro Florenzi, but the Italian capital side have already rejected the bid.
The 25 year old cost them just £12.8 million in 2014 when he signed for Olympiakos but he'll clearly cost a lot more than that if United want to strengthen their defence without signing Lindelof.
It's thought that part of the delay in the Lindelof deal is the resurgence of Marcos Rojo and Phil Jones in the centre of United's defence. Mourinho started the season with Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling as first choice defenders but that has changed.
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However Bailly is off to the African Cup of Nations, Rojo looks determined to get a long ban at some point and Jones is only one stupid tackle away from injury.
Mourinho surely still needs reinforcements in defence, but will it be Manolas or Lindelof?
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