Footie Central | Football Blog Blogging the football world
Manchester United are ready to break their club record transfer fee for Atlético Madrid midfielder Saúl Ňíguez .
He is seen as a replacement for Paul Pogba in the event that the 26 year old World Cup winner decides to leave Old Trafford in the summer.
Saúl is a year younger and has been at Atlético for a decade. A Spanish international who has 15 full caps for his country, he is under a long-term contract with the Spanish club, having signed a nine year deal with them back in 2017.
The release clause in his contract is £135 million, which United are prepared to pay, a sum that would eclipse the £89 million they paid to bring Pogba back to United from Juventus in 2016. Ironically, they are hoping to partly fund Saul’s purchase by selling Pogba again.
United have been long-time admirers of Saúl, and watched him as he helped dump Liverpool out of the Champions League before virtually all football in Europe came to a halt.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.