We’ve still got almost a month and a half before the January transfer period opens, but it appears that United are already wrapping up a little winter business well before the window opens.
According to the Guardian, we’re closing in on a deal for Danish keeper Anders Lindegaard, who hails from Norwegian side Aalesunds FK.
As per their reports, we’ve provisionally agreed terms for the 26-year-old, and an official announcement is expected to happen within the next couple of days.
Aalesund recently wrapped up a fourth-place finish in Norway’s top flight (seven points and seven spots ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s new old home, Molde), and behind Lindegaard’s efforts, they allowed a respectable 37 goals in 30 games in the goal-friendly Tippeligaen.
It looks like we’ll be forking out around £3.5m for Lindegaard, who has four caps for Denmark, all coming this year.
At 26, Lindegaard is still a relative youngster in keeper years, which means our relatively small investment could pay off several times over. And even if it doesn’t, and he ends up being able to nail down a place as our keeper of the future, it won’t be at much cost to United, and it won’t be at much cost to his career either, as he’ll be able to move on in a few years and still be in position to have several years of success in a quality league.
I like the idea of getting this done quickly and bring him to the club in January. That could allow him to get some early experience in the FA Cup, or perhaps even a couple of Premier League matches against the lower sides in the table.
And considering that we’ll likely be signing another keeper, whether in January or in the summer (I assume in the summer), coming in January could help Lindegaard have the inside track to being Edwin Van der Sar’s immediate successor, if EVDS does indeed hang up his gloves at the end of this season.
Speaking of our pursuit of another keeper, according to the Daily Mail, we’re supposedly close to a £15m deal for Atletico Madrid’s David de Gea. However, Atletico’s president has quickly refuted those reports, saying that no transfer discussions have taken place with anyone.
De Gea, who’s coming off of a clean sheet in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Osasuna (his fourth clean sheet this season), would certainly be a fine, fine addition, but even if we were close to a deal for him, I wouldn’t be opposed to waiting it out until the summer to land that second new keeper.
Not only will it give us a little time to see what Lindegaard is made of (and determine our potential targets accordingly), but if Schalke continue to stink it up in the Bundesliga, their hand could be forced with Manuel Neuer, who could be there for the taking for perhaps two-thirds of what the Mail quoted for our supposed move for De Gea.
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