Manchester United are now confident over securing the potential transfer of Inter Milan goalkeeper Andre Onana this summer as their replacement for the departing David de Gea.
There are, however, mixed messages being put out there over the manner of De Gea’s exit from Old Trafford, according to Ben Jacobs in the latest edition of his weekly exclusive CaughtOffside column.
While Man Utd have denied ever making a formal offer of a contract extension to the Spanish shot-stopper, it seems the player’s camp feel the club just never signed the deal off on their side even though De Gea himself had put pen to paper.
We may never know for sure quite how this all played out behind the scenes, but United fans will at least be glad to hear some positive news on the signing of Onana.
Jacobs says a new bid for the Cameroon international is imminent, with the player himself told to prepare for the move to Manchester.
“Manchester United are confident of agreeing a fee with Inter for Andre Onana this week. A new bid is imminent: it may even have landed by the time you read this,” Jacobs said.
“Inter have been pushing for €60m, but Manchester United have always tried for less, especially knowing the Italian club really needs to sell.
“There is now urgency from all parties. Inter will need to use some of the Onana fee to try and strike a deal with Chelsea to sell Romelu Lukaku. Chelsea want to do a deal but are looking for around €45m, and Inter’s latest rejected bid was about €20m too short. Lukaku has delayed his return to Chelsea until Monday 17 July, and it’s still thought a deal can be done between now and then.
“As for Onana, he’s already been told to prepare for the move to Manchester United. The final fee is expected to be north of €50m and perhaps even as high as €55m.
“Meanwhile, David de Gea is no longer a Manchester United player, and it’s a shame the manner in which he left.
“Manchester United insiders maintain no formal contract extension was ever offered to de Gea and that he took time to reflect on his future before leaving. This is a very neat narrative. But the De Gea side have a slightly different version of events. They argue de Gea actually signed a new Manchester United contract only for the club to withdraw their offer after failing to complete their side of the paperwork.
“Ultimately, neither party wants any bad blood now, and I thought de Gea’s goodbye message was classy. It’s also true that if de Gea stated he wanted to be assured of being the No.1 in 2023/24, so seeing Manchester United’s pursuit of Onana probably convinced him he’s made the right decision regardless of the circumstances leading to his exit.”