Manchester United seem ready to leap on the opportunity to sign a highly rated Brazilian full-back Guilherme Arana, who could be brought in as a replacement for Luke Shaw – reports The Sun.
Manchester United boss José Mourinho is certainly not happy with Shaw. The England international was once a transfer target for the Portuguese boss when he was at Chelsea. United managed to sign the Chelsea fan on a £30 million deal, but his United career has never really taken off as he would have hoped. Shaw has consistently struggled with injuries and it seems that Mourinho is least pleased with the player being unavailable for some key matches.
The Portuguese indirectly criticised Shaw and Smalling after the 3-1 win over Swansea for what he perceived as not being 100% commitment. Both players did not play in the match after pulling out of the squad citing injuries.
United scouts have been watching Arana for quite a while now. It seems that the club are ready to make a move for the defender in January. The 20-year-old first came to prominence when he featured for the Brazil under 20 team in a game against England. A number of English clubs like Tottenham are thought to have shown interest in the defender, but United seemed to have sealed the deal with swift and decisive action.
Photo of Guilherme Arana’s agent at #mufc office on Tues…not too hard to find 🙂https://t.co/fvWVhEae1I pic.twitter.com/81g6RCqFRx
— Scouts in Attendance (@scoutsattending) November 16, 2016
It would not be the first Brazilian full-back signing made by United, as they brought in the Da Silva twins – Rafael and Fabio – from Brazilian football several years ago. However, the twins were brought in as very young players, as United hope to mould them into English style fullbacks. The Brazilian fullbacks are highly offensive in nature and they almost like to operate as wingbacks. Since the English game largely requires the defenders to just perform the task of defending while only occasionally joining the attack, United thought that a major transition would be necessary for Brazilian fullbacks in order to succeed in the English league.
Bringing the Da Silva brothers early was an experiment that only worked for Rafael, as Fabio Da Silva failed to have the desired impact and is now playing with Middlesbrough .
One of the issues that may hit United in their attempts to bring in Arana is the issue of work permits. It would be extremely difficult for Arana to get a work permit straight away as he has never appeared for the Brazilian national team. Since Brexit is yet to complete, the EU countries like Spain and Italy still have a strong advantage when it comes to signing Brazilian players.
Even then, United seem intent on bringing Arana in the January transfer window. The player’s agent, Fernando Garcia, is reportedly in England to sort out a deal.
