With the January transfer window well and truly open, at the half way point of the month, many Manchester United fans will be expecting the squad to be strengthened further as we will clearly be looking for significant improvement in the second half of the 2023/24 campaign given we are sat in seventh place in the Premier League table, and it seems that our interest in Joao Neves might turn into quite the saga.
With prospective new minority co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe meeting with representatives of the club’s major fan groups this week given his keen desire to understand the current frustrations at Old Trafford, even though his 25% purchase of the club will not be ratified until at least next month, the change in approach will no doubt be welcomed by plenty.
A change of approach in the window, given we are eight points shy of the Champions League spots right now, would also be very welcomed and although a better clinical strike rate would be on most fans wish list, it appears manager Erik ten Hag has his eye firmly on Benfica midfielder, Joao Neves. AFCON betting sites in South Africa and elsewhere will have their own odds on who else we might be looking at.
With Casemiro turning 32 years of age next month, and lingering doubts over the future of on-loan Sofyan Amrabat given his performances so far do not necessarily mean that we will now make the loan a permanent deal, it has already been reported that our attention has turned to 19-year-old Neves and that we are very keen to open up talks this month.
Some corners of the media have suggested that a deal had been struck between the sides that gave United a first refusal, but they recently released a club statement categorically denying that this was true.
Furthermore, they flatly denied suggestions that even tentative talks had been had over their international Academy graduate with the Red Devils, nor had talks been had with any other potential suitor.
Contrary to the normal approach to flat-out denials, they included the phrase ‘…any information to the contrary is false’ but chose to bold those particular words for extra emphasis.
However, we all know money talks in the modern game of football, so if our interest is true here, Benfica’s statement could soon well become completely obsolete – and many would point out they simply denied an existing agreement mainly, the part relating to entering into future talks, was far weaker.
Whether or not this deal comes to anything, with Ratcliffe soon to take charge fans will certainly be hoping for some kind of statement this month, so we can see a far more viable plan being put into place as we move into the summer, and hopefully a far brighter 2024/25 campaign.
