Manchester United have decided not to sign Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Kai Havertz because he considered the club’s £ 90m price “excessive”.
The German will join Chelsea this summer and international team-mate Leroy Sane appears to confirm his move to Stamford Bridge earlier this week.
The 21-year-old has attracted attention from all over Europe in the past 18 months, including giants like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Manchester United was equally passionate and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer discussed the possibility of signing Havertz with his board in January.
However, according to Athletic, United board members Matt Judge and Ed Woodward believe that £ 90m is not good value for money and that, in any case, Leverkusen’s price will eventually drop.
Chelsea estimate Havertz at around £ 75 million, but a host of add-ons could bring the deal to around £ 80 million. From that point of view, the United board of directors was right in suggesting that the price asked by Leverkusen would go down.
However, perhaps more worrying for United fans will be the fact that the Red Devils seem destined to lose another young talent.
United have met both Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland in the past six months, but both players have decided to join Dortmund.
Although United’s transfer policy has improved under Solskjaer, many of the problems that were present under Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal persist.
United waited until the last week of the transfer window last summer to sign Harry Maguire last summer and the club ended up paying Leicester’s starting price of £ 80 million.
Solskjaer saw Bruno Fernandes in action on January 5, but the Portuguese director signed on the dotted line more than three weeks later on January 30.
The 25-year-old has been a sensation since arriving at the Theater of Dreams, but United has played seven times between Solskjaer’s trip to Portugal and Fernandes’ arrival on the penultimate day of the window.
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