5 free agents Manchester United could sign in January
Manchester United might be in a decent run of form right now, but their squad still needs a major upheaval, with several players’ contracts running out next summer.
David De Gea, Anthony Martial, Ander Herrera and Juan Mata are just some of the players who might leave Old Trafford for free next season. While most of them will sign contract renewals in the next couple of months, it’s time for United to start thinking of some replacements.
Several high profile stars across Europe will be free to negotiate pre-contract agreements in January.
There have been conflicting reports in the media recently, with some claiming that Mourinho will be handed a £100 million budget to reinforce his squad in the winter, and others stating that the board aren’t ready to trust him with that kind of money yet.
Even if he isn’t given a lot of cash to work with, Mourinho could snag some players for free.
Let’s take a look at 5 players whose contracts are expiring next summer that United should approach in January:
Munir El Haddadi (Barcelona)
This is a tricky one.
Munir made his breakthrough for Barcelona way back in 2014 as an 18-year-old, scoring in a La Liga match against Elche on his debut.
Even though the Catalans had MSN back then, he was tipped to have a huge career ahead of him by several fans and critics. He made 16 appearances that season and 26 in the following one, before being loaned out to Valencia and Alaves.
Both his loan spells were fairly successful, but he’s fallen off the radar recently. He is, however, still at the Camp Nou and has played 7 times this season, so that has to count for something.
Having spent his youth career at several different clubs including Atletico Madrid, Munir finally joined Barcelona in 2011.
He spent only a couple of seasons with the reserves before being promoted to the senior squad.
Munir offers plenty of pace, trickery and creativity, and although he primarily plays as a centre-forward, he is also capable of operating out wide. He might just be the wildcard that United need to fill their problematic right wing.
He has one cap for the Spanish national team but was also eligible to represent Morocco thanks to his father. His solitary appearance for Spain was in 2014, and his appeal to change his international allegiance was denied by FIFA earlier this year.
Even though Barcelona’s two attacking stalwarts in Suarez and Messi are well into their 30’s, Munir is unlikely to have a future ahead of him in Spain. Barca has reportedly shortlisted 6 players as potential replacements for Suarez, making it clear that Ernesto Valverde doesn’t have the 23-year-old in his plans for the future.
This means that he will probably run out his contract, and depart for free next summer.
So is he worth gambling on for Manchester United? If he wasn’t available for free, probably not, but Mourinho has a lot to gain and nothing to lose by signing him for nothing.