Man Utd have ‘half agreement’ in place to sign full-back

Manchester United are expected to be busy again during the summer transfer window as Jose Mourinho will be looking to upgrade in a number of positions.

One of those will be at left-back where the boss has never really settled on any of his options.  Last summer we were strongly linked with a move for Tottenham Hotspur’s Danny Rose but nothing materialised and suggestions that we’re going to make a move for the England international have quietened down.

Ashley Young has played the majority of time at left-back this season.  The winger-come-defender turns 33 over the summer but is currently keeping Luke Shaw, Matteo Darmian, Daley Blind and Marcos Rojo out of the first team, which doesn’t say much about those defenders.

There have been strong reports throughout the season that we will be making an offer for Napoli’s Faouzi Ghoulam over the summer.  We were linked to the Algerian international during January but he wouldn’t have passed a medical as he’s still out from a torn ACL suffered back in November.

However, it appears we were interested in the full-back when he was fit as RAI Sport journalist Ciro Venerato has recently claimed that we had a ‘half agreement’ in place for Ghoulam, with Napoli bringing in Benfica’s Alex Grimaldo as a direct replacement.

AreaNapoli have quoted Venerato as saying:

“Is Ghoulam covered by Manchester United? Yes, he’s a champion, and despite the injury, he remains a man on the transfer market. United keep thinking about him.

“Between October and November, there was already a half agreement with Jorge Mendes to bring Alex Grimaldo (from Benfica) in blue (to Napoli) and Ghoulam to Manchester, but everything still needs to be concluded.”

Only last week did we report on claims from RMC Sport that we were lining up a £26 million bid for Faouzi Ghoulam this summer, so there could certainly be some truth to the claims by Ciro Venerato.