This evening, Fabrizio Romano drops probably one of his biggest bombs concerning United this summer. Well, at least that's what I think.
Mr 'Here we go' said that United target Sander Berge will be joining Fulham after the London club have agreed a deal with Burnley to sign the Norwegian midfielder for £20m plus £5m. His medical is booked and the formal steps will follow tomorrow.
The additional info from Romano is perhaps the most interesting part of the deal.
The Italian says that Scott McTominay to Fulham is OFF.
A double whammy there for United.
Or is it a triple whammy?
As Sander Berge moves to Fulham, they will probably not have the funds to sign McTominay.
As we know that with United, we're on a sell-to-buy basis. McTominay's potential departure would've meant that we would have some money to bring in Manuel Ugarte from PSG even if the amount coming in for McTominay didn't match the £51m the Parisians want for Ugarte.
There were some reports that Fulham were looking to go back in for McTominay and offer the asking price United wanted for the midfielder (£30m) in a pursuit to land the player's signature.
As we now know, that will not be the case.
Laurie Whitwell reports this news in The Athletic.
Final Thoughts
I'm heartbroken by this news. Not because I wanted Sander Berge to come to United but that his move to Fulham means McTominay could stay and the chances of bringing Ugarte in diminish a little.
I don't know much of Berge, I'm not a fan of McTominay's and Ugarte is a player that I believe we need in our midfield as he is exactly what we're crying out for.
This is a triple whammy for me.
Because I don't know much about Berge, I can't really say much about his qualities. The fact that he plays for Burnley and hasn't really had a lot of interest from big clubs (or many clubs) would suggest that he isn't the quality required of a club like United.
Scott McTominay is much the same imo. I've always felt that he brings nothing to the table other than height and a couple of goals. He is also a midfielder who is down the pecking order at MUFC with the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, Casemiro, Mason Mount and perhaps even young Toby Collyer all ahead of him.
For a player of his age (27), does he want to be sitting on the bench? He also isn't one of those players who would want to remain at the club because of high wages as according to Capology, McTominay earns £60k a week. I'm sure he could get something around that amount at Fulham as well.
I understand that he may not want to leave the club where he joined as a youngster and made his way through to the first team. He also has the status of saying 'I play for Man Utd' which is obviously not something many can say. But for his own career, he needs to move even if it seems as though Erik ten Hag wants to keep the Scotsman at Old Trafford.
What I will say about 'Scotty' though, is that while I'm not his biggest fan, I do believe that Fulham are going for the wrong player.
McTominay is better imo, he is more experienced in the Premier League, his good going forward, physical, good in the air and one thing that I do admire about him is his attitude and professionalism.
The Cottagers are also going to pay around the same price (£25m + £5m) for Berge which is the same amount United wanted for McTominay.
I'm not actually sure why Fulham decided to go for our alternative to Manuel Ugarte and not their first-choice in Scott McTominay.
Moving onto Ugarte then, the Uruguayan has been waiting very, very patiently for United to come and swoop him up. As I said, the problem is the price PSG want for him as they're asking for all of the money they spent on him a year ago from Sporting Lisbon even though Ugarte hasn't been used much by Luis Enrique.
That £51m (€60m) is seen as unrealistic by MUFC (which I would agree with) even if we are somewhat desperate for his services. We've known for a long time (pretty much the entire transfer window) that Ugarte has agreed personal terms with United. Fabrizio Romano has even used terms like 'Ugarte is in love with the idea of being a United player'. I can understand that 😏.
In some recent updates, Romano says that "he wants to join Manchester United" and that "he wants MUFC as soon as possible." He was even left out of the PSG squad for their first game of Ligue 1.
While McTominay to Fulham appears off, that doesn't mean he won't be sold at all as he has had interest from Napoli. Whether they can make an offer we can't refuse, we'll have to wait and see.
Twist and turns in the transfer window. As expected.
Background Image: Sander Berge | Creator: Matt McNulty Matt McNulty | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2024 Getty Images via Man Utd News