Reports that United and Brighton are in active one on one discussions on a Baleba transfer. Still a ways a part. Baleba wants the move. United feel they will have less chance of getting him if they wait until next summer. Fingers crossed we find a way.

Collyer appears close to a season long loan at West Brom. Roma apparently in touch with United about a Sancho loan.

Bid in for permanent deal.

🚨🟡🔴 AS Roma submit official bid to Manchester United to sign Jadon Sancho.

Permanent move for £20m offered while club’s also open to loan with buy clause.

Decision up to Manchester United and Sancho’s camp.

🔀 AS Roma, in contact with both Sancho and Bailey. pic.twitter.com/wq4B6MV4ha

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 14, 2025

Loan with buy clause? His contract is up in June 2026.

Though I'm assuming that United have a club option for the 2026-27 season. They seem to always negotiate a club controlled option to contracts. Maybe they trigger it now if Roma prefers a loan and mandatory buy option at the end of this season for accounting purposes?

That said, I would accept 20m now in a heartbeat for Sancho. If you add the 5m that Chelsea paid to get out of signing him, it's comparable to where United were with him at this time last season.

Agreed. If Roma is bidding 20mm, try to get another couple out of them and take it.

We have an option, but we certainly wouldn't want to trigger it. He's on too much money. If we had to, Brentford had Raya agree to a one year extension as a condition of his loan to Arsenal. So that would be a possibility (on a more realistic wage).

But it's a lot simpler to give him the difference between his Roma and United pay and sell outright. He will probably want more than that, though, as "compensation" for him not running his contract out and "letting" us have any transfer fee at all.

Regardless of contract extension, a loan with option buy is basically if Roma want to beat others to the punch in locking him down. Say he's killing it this fall… they can exercise the option in Nov/Dec before an official transfer window. He's already a registered player with the league so the window doesn't matter. He can basically become theirs immediately, whenever they decide he's really good enough.

They wouldn't pay 20M for that, though.

We'd take the 20M right now I'm pretty sure; club-to-club isn't the problem. The trick is getting Captain Freedom to take their deal.

My assumption is that if United triggered the extra year, his salary this year would remain the same and his salary for the 26/27 season would be determined by whatever the terms of the extension is. The benefit to Roma is that they can delay the transfer payment. From United's POV, the extension is a moot point if there's a mandatory buy clause in the loan agreement that Roma can't buy their way out of (unlike Chelsea).

But all of that is an assumption and indeed, if triggering an extension also increases this season's wages, then it's less desirable from United's POV (unless Roma agrees to pay that gap between current salary and new salary).

Anyway, would much prefer 20m now regardless. There was a report out earlier that Sancho would consider Turkey if he couldn't get an offer from a top team. Surely Roma is more desirable than Turkey from a sporting perspective...even if they are only in the Europa League. But unless Dortmund make an offer, I don't see a CL coming for him and they don't seem to be all that interested in him.

Please accept the Roma project Jadon

(Praying dog meme)

That's what I'm saying, the option will be on his current wage structure. So we won't trigger it because he's on ridiculous wages, like 15M a year. So we wouldn't commit to that because it wouldn't really make sense. The only way we could do a loan is if he agreed to an extension on lower wages so the option could kick in at the end. Which I don't think he would do.

Of course, the alternative is a game of chicken where we pay him 15M for a year to train in the reserves and leave on a free.

I'll be so happy when he's gone.

Showstopper said:

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They wouldn't pay 20M for that, though.

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I'm pretty sure getting an option to buy means you can lock down what that player's wage will be if you execute the option. This is where the real potential money-saver comes in. You get permission from the loaning club to go ahead and reach terms now before the player's value might go up. It could easily be worth 20M to do that rather than compete with others for the free agent contract.

And that's without factoring increased sale value which is also likely to occur in such a scenario.

An option to buy means you have the option to buy the right to register the player under contract. When the contract expires, everyone has the right to register the player by entering a contract with the player. So an option requires there to be something left after the loan expires. That's why Raya, with only one year left on his Brentford contract, signed a one year extension before going on loan to Arsenal a couple years ago. Make sense?

🚨 Starting to look like a matter of time on Carlos Baleba’s move to Man Utd.

Feels inevitable after communication this week between clubs and player expressing his wish to leave Brighton.

Next couple days are crucial.#mufc #Baleba

— Ross Harwood (@RossHarwood_) August 14, 2025

I know how they work, I just thought there were some cases where they could be executed mid-season, but I must be wrong about that.

But regarding registration, a loaned player gets registered with the loan club immediately, because that's who they're actually playing for. Registration and employment contracts are mutually exclusive (though ideally they coincide).

Furlock Bones said:

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🚨 Starting to look like a matter of time on Carlos Baleba’s move to Man Utd.

Feels inevitable after communication this week between clubs and player expressing his wish to leave Brighton.

Next couple days are crucial.#mufc #Baleba

— Ross Harwood (@RossHarwood_) August 14, 2025

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This move is the one that I had the smallest amount of hope in occurring, but is the one that makes us CL competitive right away. I am not sure how the finances could work but it definitely gets us closer to more revenue.

Yeah but everyone outside EPL can sign him mid-season on a contract starting after the loan ends. So they are buying the right to do something they can do anyway? There's just no reason to have an option that only kicks in after the contract expires; it doesn't make any sense.

Yeah I agree 100% now that I realize options can't be executed midseason.

I'm not exactly sure that we're disagreeing to be honest but probably best for us to just move on.

I don't know who this Ross Harwood guy is but he needs to...

Deals for Hojlund, Garnacho and Sancho all lined up with their departures to be confirmed over next few days.

Ruben was clear on who he didn’t want at the club anymore and the process is starting.

Rashford already gone, and after these 3 - Antony and Malacia still on to leave…

— Ross Harwood (@RossHarwood_) August 14, 2025

🚨 BREAKING: Benjamin Šeško, Andre Onana and Joshua Zirkzee are all in contention to START against Arsenal, says Ruben Amorim ✅

Noussair Mazraoui and Lisandro Martinez will miss out through injury ❌#MUFC

— Stretford Paddock (@StretfordPaddck) August 15, 2025

So, we have a very tough start to the season. In fact, I think it is worst that we get Arsenal at home to start the season. I would prefer we to play them on the road to start. Always want to win. But, I think best case scenario is we can pull out a draw.

I hope this is wrong, but…

#MUFC are ready to accept Carlos Baleba is not for sale this summer. More here. https://t.co/LPpuD1uy2u

— Alex Crook ⚽️🎙 (@alex_crook) August 15, 2025

A win would of course be amazing after the horribleness of last season, but a good performance that leads to a draw would be almost as good as a lucky win. The most important thing Amorim needs to do in the early part of the season is prove that the team has significantly improved and prove it as early as possible. Because the schedule is so tough, that might not show itself in a lot of wins but it should absolutely be obvious to anyone who watches United.

Btw, Simon Stone says we may go for Hjulmund (sp?) at Sporting if we give up on Baleba.

It's tough because Fulham and Burnley are already must win, nearly. A first five with Arsenal, City, and Chelsea is brutal. Kind of feels like we need a result somehow in one of the three, at least. Then two more winnable games, followed by at Anfield. We talked about it when the fixture list came out, but very brutal start.

Edit: On the bright side, since the consensus top 4 are out of the way early, it eases up from after Liverpool to nearly Christmas.

Call your shot...


--------------------Mbuemo-------------------
----------Cunha----------Bruno--------------
----------Ugarte---------Casemiro----------
Dorgu------------------------------------Amad
---------Shaw---Maguire--Yoro-------------
-------------------Bayindir----------------------

Some suggesting Amorim will/should start Sesko, but I absolutely would not. Given the opponent, I think he'll opt for some defensive solidity especially in the middle of the pitch. Dalot would be even more defensive but probably too defensive if you're not starting a real forward. Also talk that Onana will start but the only thing worse than starting a shaky keeper (Bayindir) is starting a shaky keeper who hasn't trained/played in a month (Onana).

Ornstein confirmed

🚨 Man Utd not planning to proceed with Carlos Baleba move this summer. Indirect + direct contact between clubs but Brighton clear not for sale & level of fee to consider deal too high. 21yo midfielder keen on #MUFC but not unhappy at #BHAFC @TheAthleticFC https://t.co/PrsYxEk94g

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) August 15, 2025

nm you beat me to it

I don't have a firm feel on what he's going to do. I don't think it will be Sesko yet. Seems early to start Zirkzee off injury. Maybe Mount again? No great answers for this game. I feel like next week will be a little easier to predict.

I think Dalot gets in for a little firmer defense against Arsenal.

I don't like the Bruno Casemiro midfield, but… we keep trying to do it.

Cunha-Mount-Mbeumo
Dalot-Bruno-Casemiro-Amad
Shaw-Maguire-Yoro
Onana

(I hope we do something different and I'm wrong. Except the CBs)

I don't mean to poop all over this Harwood guy, but I hadn't heard of him. I did a search, and Reddit was hating on him for calling the sale to Qatar a done deal and stating that Frenkie de Jong had agreed personal terms. I didn't find the Qatar tweet, but did find the de Jong personal terms agreed.

Edit: Ending on a positive note… maybe still more reliable than The Sun?

damn.

no hard feelings for from me. i haven't done much research on him other than he was pretty early in saying Sesko to Man U when others were still reporting it was a bidding war with Newcastle.

who knows maybe people at United were confident the deal was going to get done, but things changed. disappointing because of how long we have waited to fix the spine of this squad.