Sofyan Amrabat remains a Man Utd player (well, he's still part of the official squad on the website 🤷) but who knows for how much longer. Even Amrabat himself doesn't know.
The midfielder joined United on loan from Fiorentina last season which was greeted with a lot of excitement by United fans. Several were frothing at the mouth over a partnership between him and Casemiro.
However, that dream duo never really took off as Amrabat having to fill in for others around the field, injuries and Casemiro's form plummeting, meant that Amremiro (as I called them) sort of, failed.
Amrabat made just the 30 appearances for the club with 0 goals and 0 assists. He was also out of favor by Erik ten Hag (his former manager from their FC Utrecht days) which saw him receive even fewer minutes than he would've liked.
Many were surprised at this given that fact that they worked together and Amrabat was more than capable of doing that holding midfielder role after, you know, Casemiro forgot how to football. Even when the Brazilian was injured or played at centre-back, still, the manager would rather Scott McTominay play ahead of the Moroccan.
I don't know what ten Hag was thinking there. Perhaps he wasn't thinking at all.
While McTominay has his good attributes, he ain't no number 6 whereas that is Amrabat's main position.
But this probably suggested just how low in the pecking order Man Utd's number 4 had become. Not good signs at all.
However, towards the end of the campaign, we did see more of Amrabat as he played in all of the last four games in which he performed brilliantly (particularly the FA Cup final against City). Due to these stellar displays, many fans wanted the Moroccan to stay and be a squad player at the least.
With his ability as a midfielder and his versatility, a player like Sofyan Amrabat is one that I would welcome to the squad permanently.
Speaking of which, Fiorentina do want this matter resolved quickly and have put up an asking price of €15m to €18m, according to Viola Nation.
We know that United are exploring their options when it comes to midfield as we've been heavily linked with PSG midfielder Manuel Ugarte as well as the likes of Joao Neves (although he looks set to be headed to Paris), and more recently, Martin Zubimendi of Real Sociedad.
We must not also forget that Casemiro is still an MUFC player so should the club want to bring in a new midfielder like Ugarte, one of Amrabat or Casemiro need to be sold.
I believe that the club want a proper starting CDM that will truly improve the team as when looking at Casemiro last season, he is unreliable and probably see Sofyan Amrabat as more of a squad player.
This is why we are stuck in this halfway house of not knowing whether to stick or twist on the Moroccan. If a good deal comes in for Casemiro or Amrabat, I'm sure the club won't hesitate to do a deal which will help in trying to bring in another player.
Amrabat has been on holiday for the past few weeks with some videos coming out of him in the gym.
Keeping Amrabat, moving Casemiro on and bringing in another midfielder isn't completely out of the question either despite the Brazilian being a permanent member of the squad and actually in pre-season training whereas Amrabat hasn't been at Carrington since the end of last season.
Reports suggest that Amrabat would prefer to stay at Old Trafford instead of a move back to Italy or elsewhere.
Whatever the case is, a decision needs to be made fast on the future of Sofyan Amrabat.
Background Image: Sofyan Amrabat | Image credit: Getty Images via Eurosport