Erik ten Hag gives directions to Cristiano Ronaldo. /
Mercado
The Dutch coach considers the Red Devils squad closed within a Premier in which Chelsea is the leader in terms of disbursement, after paying 82.5 million euros for Fofana
After signing the Brazilian winger Antony for one hundred million euros and having practically tied the incorporation of the Slovak goalkeeper Martin Dubravka, who would arrive on loan from Newcastle to compete with David de Gea, Erik ten Hag considers the Manchester United squad closed , which means that, except for an unexpected last minute twist, Cristiano Ronaldo will continue in the Theater of Dreams. “The window will end like this. You always have to be alert, but we will go from September to January with this template. Offensively we needed to strengthen the team, “said the Red Devils coach in the preview of the duel that will measure the Mancunian team with Leicester, corresponding to the fifth day of the Premier League.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s was one of the soap operas of the summer. The Funchal star wanted to leave Manchester United at all costs to continue fattening his legend in the Champions League, a competition in which the ‘red devils’ will not participate this season after finishing last year in sixth position in the Premier League. But the repeated refusals that his agent, Jorge Mendes, has encountered have left the Portuguese with practically no room for maneuver and with a complicated horizon at Old Trafford.
The tensions with Ten Hag have been a constant since Cristiano Ronaldo placed himself under the orders of the Dutch coach, who considers that the star’s attitude hinders harmony within the locker room. This has been revealed in the first four days of the Premier, where Cristiano has only started once, precisely in the 4-0 win that the Red Devils conceded at the Brentford stadium, and he has started from the bench in the remaining three matches. A secondary role that goes badly with the ambition of the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, who has yet to see a door so far this season.
But after clubs like Atlético, Bayern Munich, Chelsea or Milan closed their doors on him, Cristiano Ronaldo seems to have no other way out than to try to win the trust of Ten Hag to return to being the offensive benchmark of a a team that has blown up the market in recent weeks to try to revive old laurels and calm its fans, tired of so many disappointments in recent seasons.
Chelsea break the piggy bank
With 238 million euros invested, Manchester United ranks second in the ‘top ten’ of the clubs that have invested the most money in this summer market. A table dominated by the entities of a Premier League where money continues to flow nonstop. Without Tuesday it was Antony who landed in the British Isles for 100 million euros to put on United’s elastic, this Wednesday it was Chelsea who broke the bank by paying 82.5 million euros to Leicester to get hold of the services of Wesley Fofana. In this way, the French defender becomes, at 22, the third most expensive center-back in history, behind the Englishman Harry Maguire, who joined Manchester United in 2019 in exchange for 87 million euros, and the Dutchman Virgil van Dijk, for whom Liverpool paid 84.65 million euros to get him out of Southampton in 2018.
The signing of Fofana, for which Chelsea had been longing for weeks despite the fact that he has only been international five times for France, allows the ‘blues’ to position themselves as the club that has spent the most money, one day after the closing of the market. The entity that a few months ago became the property of Todd Boehly has disbursed 269 million euros to incorporate into its ranks Marc Cucurella (65.3 million), Raheem Sterling (56.2), Kalidou Koulibaly (38), Carney Chukwuemeka (18) and Gabriel Slonina (9.09), in addition to the aforementioned Fofana (82.5). On the contrary, it has only entered 44.4 million distributed in the sales of Timo Werner (20) and Emerson Palmieri (15.4), and the transfers of Romelu Lukaku (8) and Malang Sarr (1).
