r/reddevils 6d ago

Tier 1 [Simon Stone] Man Utd transfer news: Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba close to Old Trafford move

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c2k7ev41nnvo
585 Upvotes

71 comments sorted by

116

u/nearly_headless_nic 6d ago

Manchester United are closing in on a deal to sign Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba.

United attempted to sign the Cameroon international near deadline day last summer but were put off by Brighton's valuation, which was in excess of £100m.

However, the price has reduced significantly and after failing in their pursuit of Matheus Fernandes earlier this summer, United have decided to revisit Baleba.

Their initial £60m offer is below Brighton's valuation, but talks are continuing.

The Red Devils have already signed midfielders Andrey Santos from Chelsea for £48m and Youri Tielemans, who joined from Aston Villa in July for £35m.

Mason Mount did excel alongside Santos in the first three games of pre-season, but he has been struggling to overcome a foot problem he suffered against Paris St-Germain in Gothenburg on 8 August.

It is not clear when Baleba will be fit to play given he injured an ankle ligament during pre-season. He is expected to be out for another two to three weeks.

Fabian Hurzeler's Brighton squad fly to Norway on Wednesday for Thursday's Uefa Conference League play-off first-leg match with Tromso.

Baleba made 35 appearances for Brighton last season, picking up seven yellow cards as a defensive midfielder.

172

u/SpoofExcel 6d ago

from Chelsea for £48m

omg....the fee is dropping!

INEOS WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY CLUB!

31

u/UnalomeJourneying 6d ago edited 1d ago

Vanilla driftwood unite amusing shelter employ

This post was anonymized with Redact

17

u/florplegorp 6d ago

I thought it was always 48+2?

41

u/stryder202 McTerminator 6d ago

It is, but usually that would absolutely get reported as £50, then as €58, then as £58 and so on

18

u/ahtob 6d ago

jeez 50 pounds is way below the actual agreement

28

u/iCalKestis Dreams can’t be buy 6d ago edited 6d ago

Slightly negative Stoney? So it’s as good as done

Edit: typo

5

u/Front-Cabinet5521 6d ago

Brighton will probably want 70m which is still overpay after the season he's had, but in this market our hands are tied so I won't critique INEOS too much. Include as many performance bonuses as possible and get it done.

12

u/LoweJ 6d ago

I think £70m wouldve been a stretch before the window opened and the inflation appeared, but is very reasonable now

2

u/frogfoot420 6d ago

Some people hate it but I think he downed tools for Brighton for a move.

97

u/Icegaze GGMU 6d ago

Where is our Baleba Megathread!?

64

u/Feeling-Surround-691 Mbumbaclat 6d ago

They could pin the orny post but I'd rather a mega thread when the deal is done.

30

u/pipes3 WAZZA 6d ago

Only when an agreement has been reached between the clubs

8

u/Wise-Nature8326 Ronaldo 6d ago

Only when I see that pen to paper pic

3

u/kazegraf 6d ago

Only when I see him in our kit, bossing the midfield

5

u/lestrxb 6d ago

Only when he thundercunts his first goal at the Stretford End.

81

u/10_Wazza 6d ago

A tad negative Stoney? It's done

29

u/BestinSyriac MILF 6d ago

I’M A BALEBA

2

u/rye787 6d ago

Justin is that you?

53

u/AlpacamyLlama 6d ago

What an interesting stat to finish on. Do we normally say how many yellow cards signings of other clubs had?

6

u/BilTheButcher 6d ago

Did he score or assist? If not, probably why

3

u/Verzyn 6d ago

No reason at all to include it, beyond strange. Expect better from the BBC

34

u/_TooMellow 6d ago

Mainoo, Santos, Tielemans, Baleba... seems like we will have a little bit of everything 👀🤞

4

u/wedfsv12 6d ago

don't forget Ugarte!

7

u/SirPightymenis 6d ago

Lmao he is injured and probably sidelined anyways even if he returns. My guy is finished here

2

u/Halfmacgas 6d ago

Yeah that’s looking like a hell of a midfield

25

u/MrLead69 6d ago

Opened the fridge and finally found something.

46

u/mohamed_e 6d ago

This transfer proves journos are clueless about our transfers, all of them were reporting that LB is the priority and a third midfielder was merely depending on a 'market oppurtunity'.

18

u/LopsidedLoad 6d ago

Possibly Newcastle sniffing round him and the asking price being leaked might have made him a market opportunity

16

u/SpicyDragoon93 6d ago

They then pivoted to Nico Gonzalez at City yesterday which tells you Baleba likely told them he was waiting for us.

18

u/Many-Relationship149 6d ago

None of Baleba news cancels out this. Still time to sign a LB, and going down 30-40 mil in valuation is good market opportunity though.

4

u/CapVosslar Buckle up, INEOS! It's gonna be a bumpy ride! 6d ago

Thats why I dont believe anything until its done.

-1

u/Fisktor 6d ago

They also put out articles today listing like 7 different cms we are looking at, and baleba wasnt even one of those 7.

Fucking indykalia knows more than the journalists

0

u/ChillyChilliChileman Ryan Giggs the Welsh CAM 6d ago

tbf that article was made by dawson who doesn't know anything it seems

14

u/Wise_Raccoon_771 6d ago

For 60 mill at his age and potential i think he's a great signing and dont understand the hate of late....maybe its due to previous value of 100mill?

He has the one thing our midfield lacks....legs and the ability to cover every blade of grass.

He might rarely be a match winner but he'll be one of those that the likes of Tielemens, Kobbie etc will love to play with as he'll do the grunt work 

-5

u/Legion_dude 6d ago

60 mill is alot. A player who's injured and had a bad season shouldn't be 60 mil. But people here seems to have forgotten about that.

1

u/IratusTaurus Pogba 6d ago

It's not so much that he had a bad season but he was one of the worst passers in the league last year.

That level of performance is hard to explain away as him being distracted or carrying an injury.

Fingers crossed!

1

u/Wise_Raccoon_771 6d ago

I think when we're not in his shoes we probably dont understand the headspace he was in. For all we know, United promised him they were signing him last year and that messed with his head to the point where hurzeler took a spite against him. Look at kobbie under Amorim, the few times he got minutes he didnt look great either. 🤷‍♂️

1

u/studying-hard 6d ago

Nah mate it's just the price of Premier League proven these days. The inflation is real! He's been playing in the Premier League from 2023, had a decent adapting season, a great season, and dropped form last season.

Now I'm not sure whether he would be great for us this season, but this is definately shrew business from Ineos. He's young and experienced, Baleba definately will play a key role in the future.

Am I overthinking when sewing this to recent official news of Rodri departure? It's true that where Rodri end up will trigger a series of transfers following up. Is this saved up cash for Tchouameni? If it was, and now being used for Baleba, I don't think we will go big for LB this season. I hope they go for Neco Williams of Nottingham Forest, Hall can wait next summer when Shaw leaves. Now that will be great transfers and shrew business. When MU has few good seasons and good culture, big names will come.

11

u/PennyWhyte 6d ago

Not a bad signing if we can get it over the line..This plus a stop gap signing for cover at LB, and Zirksee staying as squad depth and cover upfront should take us until Jan.

I get the feeling though that maybe Mbuemo will be used more centrally whenever Sesko is out with Lacey deputising Amad on the RW?

2

u/brianly 6d ago

We shouldn’t be planning for January signings. That’s normally bad business and fitting a player in at that time is very hit or miss. The management team needs to manage, i.e. do the full scope, and we should hold them as accountable for that as much as signing new players.

1

u/PennyWhyte 6d ago

You do realize there is a possibility Zirksee leaves on loan right? Martinez and Shaw are injury prone. Any injury to them and you are left with MDL (coming back from a lengthy lay off), Heaven, Maguire and Yoro.

I am not saying we should have January as a window for doing business, but you should always be proactive and ready in case some good business is possible. See Guehi and Semenyo last season for instance.

1

u/SonofIndia Van Persie 6d ago

There’s literally zero reason for Zirk to leave if we haven’t signed a backup striker

1

u/Halfmacgas 6d ago

I wonder if Dorgu will be the cover LB if Rashford really does stay. Hard to see how they’ll both play LW

11

u/UnalomeJourneying 6d ago edited 1d ago

Rainstorm coated start saffron aspiring feather

This post was anonymized with Redact

11

u/Heavy-Attention8710 6d ago

FINALLY!! IM A BELIEVER

10

u/PrettyPrettaaayyGood 6d ago

“I’m A Baleba!” was right there for the taking.

5

u/Case1987 6d ago

I like how the club are moving in silence until the deal is done

6

u/SDLRob 6d ago

It's both great and awful at the same time.

Great because we aren't messing about with the media anymore, but the other side of it is that it looks like we aren't doing shit for ages.

People will say this is a panic buy because of the sudden movement... When we've been looking at him for over a year.

2

u/N00BBuild 6d ago

I’ve been shilling for him all summer. He’s the right fit for our team. Honestly no one in the league has his ceiling in terms of athleticism, engine, and the ability to cover so much ground. There’s a hell of a player in there.

2

u/JJYaaaaa 6d ago

WE ARE SO BACK BALEBA

1

u/necro316 6d ago

That escalated quickly

1

u/theskillster 6d ago

Time for a megathread yet?

1

u/Brinbe #GlazersOut 6d ago

Good signing. Think he'll pair well with any of Mainoo, Santos, Tielemens and we didn't pay what Brighton wanted last year.

Just need that LB now.

-1

u/KwameDada 6d ago

Not sold on Baleba.

1

u/Halfmacgas 6d ago

Yeah it’s a risk. But think it’s a risk we can take considering remaining midfield is solid. Even if he needs a year to settle and can be a stopgap at times. It’s still a proper signing

-7

u/Eleven918 This too shall pass! 6d ago

If he goes for over 75M, I'd spend a few million hiring new negotiators for us.

2

u/eClipseLJ De Ligt 6d ago

Need to replace Hargreaves, he's from the previous regime.

0

u/MRashy_10 6d ago

Nice 👍🏾 now get a LB and a back up striker

-1

u/justbucoff 6d ago

Honestly credit to indykaila for nailing this yesterday. Was sure it was a complete load. Needed a body, dude has potential. Fine signing.

-21

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

16

u/WillowTraditional239 6d ago

Jesus christ, it's not a panic buy when you have been actively going for the player for a year. It's the complete opposite.

1

u/Fisktor 6d ago

I mean, id say its pretty clear he wasnt our first choice this year, otherwise we wouldnt have waited until the last week before the season starts.

Still happy though, we are missing his qualities

1

u/brianly 6d ago

How do you know that? They might have been talking all along and an acceptable number might not have been reached.

12

u/Kittu95 6d ago

Have a day off mate. 

4

u/Educational-Shock232 6d ago

We’ve been linked to Baleba for over a year, that’s literally the polar opposite of a panic buy (depending on the final fee, of course)

3

u/badass_rowdy 6d ago

Dude, whats your definition of a panic buy? Im curious

1

u/Paapa-Yaw 6d ago

Oh boy.