Man Utd target midfielder available for £31m this summer

The winter transfer window only closed less than three weeks ago but Manchester United have already been linked to several players ahead of it reopening this summer.

A number of central midfielders in particular have been linked with a move to Old Trafford.  This comes with 36-year-old Michael Carrick expected to hang up his boots when his contract expires at the end of the season, and whilst Marouane Fellaini has still yet to put pen to paper over a new deal, with his current contract also set to end before the start of next season.

One player we have been linked to is Euro 2016 winner Andre Gomes.  Barcelona are prepared to listen to offers for the 24-year-old less than two years after they paid Valencia £30 million for his services.

According to Spanish outlet AS, the runaway La Liga leaders are prepared to cash in on the central midfielder over the summer with the player struggling to get much playing time under Ernesto Valverde this season. And Don Balon believe a fee around £31 million would be enough to lure the central midfielder away from Camp Nou.

Gomes has made just four La Liga starts and 11 appearances in total, combining for 404 minutes under Valverde, who became the latest manager of the Catalan giants last summer.  He started just one of Barcelona’s six Champions League group stage matches too.

The Portuguese international was on our radar during last summer’s transfer window but Barcelona were reluctant to do business at the time.

According to the report in AS, Barcelona are hoping that Gomes puts in a good performance at the 2018 World Cup in Russia this summer in order to raise his stock, more than one month before the start of next season.

As well as Andre Gomes, we have been reported to be monitoring Nice’s Jean Seri, Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Weigl, Real Madrid’s Mateo Kovacic and Lazio’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic among others.

What the Portuguese midfielder would add to our side, I wonder what Jose Mourinho is thinking.  I have not been impressed from what I have seen of Andre Gomes in his season-and-a-half at Barcelona.