Al Hilal interested in Alejandro Garnacho, but selling him would be a disaster for Manchester United
According to an ESPN report, Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal are interested in Manchester United duo Casemiro and Alejandro Garnacho this summer.
The Neymar-led side are keen on continuing upon last season’s marquee acquisitions and making themselves lucrative for past-their-prime, current, and future superstars.
Casemiro is considered to be on United’s list of players they are willing to sell this summer. Garnacho, on the other hand, was one of their rising stars in the season gone by and is absolutely not a player they would be interested in selling.
Here’s why.
For many a reason, Garnacho’s exit is unthinkable
United would like to have a clean slate ahead of next season and build the new team around a strong core of young and promising players. Alongside Garnacho, Kobbie Mainoo is also one of the club’s academy graduates who became an integral part of the first team last season and is linked with other clubs this summer.
But there is no way United would consider selling either of them this summer, not without helping them realise their potential over the next few years. This, in particular, is an institution that takes pride in having a strong connection with its academy.
Also, Garnacho, currently early £50,000 per week at United, has a contract until June 2028. Only 19, he has the world at his feet. Neither he nor United are in a position of weakness going into next season. Garnacho may in the coming years be poised to make a move to a European giant like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or Barcelona. And, in coming years, the Saudi league’s standards may rise high enough to attract in-prime superstars, but that is not the case for now.
More importantly, United’s new sporting owners, INEOS, need to have the fans on their side, and they’re not doing a very good job so far. Having cancelled the club’s traditional end-of-season awards, moving the senior women’s team to portable buildings so the men’s team can use their facilities while Carrington undergoes a revamp, to the reported sale of naming rights to Old Trafford, INEOS have already taken a fair few steps to sour things with the United fanbase. They need to walk back on a few decisions here and placate the fans. The last thing they would want to do, therefore, is sell a beloved academy graduate who is not making any noise about moving, regardless of how much money they are offered.
Conclusion
Al Hilal may yet be able to satiate their thirst for a superstar by buying Casemiro and even one of the many other players United are interested in selling, but Alejandro Garnacho is a trick too far for them.
For reasons both logical and emotional, United will not entertain a premature sale of their latest prodigal son.
More Manchester United News-
- 3 things that Erik ten Hag needs to do differently at Manchester United after putting pen to paper on a new deal
- Manchester United preparing for inevitable Mason Greenwood reality as efforts to sell continue
- Barcelona hold talks to sign much-maligned Manchester United star on surprise loan this summer
Even when one takes into account that strange things happen in football all the time, this feels like a move too strange to happen.
