Man Utd’s £38m Deal To Sign International Star Still On – Report

Managers are now making moves to try and strengthen their squads during the January transfer window or next summer so we’ll bring you all the latest gossip from around the globe. Today, the latest on Man Utd’s move for Victor Lindelof….

Manchester United’s £38m deal to sign Victor Lindelof is still ON but they need to wait for Benfica to resolve their dispute with Vasteras before the move can be completed, according to a report in the Mirror.

Lindelof had been widely tipped to join United during the January transfer window but the deal went cold amid rumours that the Red Devils had cooled their interest due to the impressive recent form of Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo.

The pair have started in nine of United’s last 10 Premier League games and have played a key role in the Manchester giants superb form over the past couple of months so it would have been understandable had Jose Mourinho decided to stall his pursuit of Lindelof.

However, the Mirror claim that United’s move for the Swedish international is very-much still on but is simply being held up due to an on-going dispute between Benfica and the players former club Vasteras.

The newspaper says that the Swedish outfit will be owed around £7.6m of the proposed £38m deal due to a 20% sell-on clause in Lindelof’s contract but Benfica are trying to re-negotiate the fee.

The Mirror claim that Vasteras have submitted a formal complaint to FIFA and Benfica have informed United that they will have to make-up the difference if they are forced to hand over 20% of any transfer fee.

This is the beauty of modern day, big-money transfers but you’d expect the three parties involved will be able to thrash out an agreement in the end and I still fully expect Lindelof to eventually become a United player.

Benfica have left him out of their last two squads and the Portuguese giants are renowned for cashing-in on their best players to turn huge profits with 13 key men sold for around £270m over the past six years alone.

Benfica coach Rui Vitoria admitted just last month that the club were prepared to lose Lindelof during the January window. He’s quoted as saying by the Mirror:

“Sometimes players have to leave because their careers, their age, the way they are playing and developing means there will be clubs interested who can give them a different life and take them on a different path,”

“If this happens [Lindelof leaves], we have solutions. We have a B team packed with great players and in the short term some of them will be playing for Benfica’s first-team.”

We’ll have to wait and see how things develop over the coming weeks but Lindelof would be an exciting addition if Untied are able to get a deal agreed as he’s developed in to one of the most promising young defenders in Europe over the past 18 months.

READ MORE –> Man Utd transfer news

If Lindelof does arrive at Old Trafford this month then it will be interesting to see whether Mourinho offloads one of his current centre-backs but with Eric Bailly off to the Africa Cup of Nations perhaps the United boss will wait until the summer before reshaping his defence.