Manchester United
Premier League • England
Man Utd keen to open talks for Brazilian enforcer as Ashworth plots upgrade for costly star
Manchester United are reportedly ready to make a fresh bid to sign Atalanta midfielder Ederson, with Dan Ashworth stepping up his plans to find a replacement for Casemiro – and how much the Red Devils will need to pay for a January deal has come to light.
The Red Devils go into Saturday evening’s match at Crystal Palace in good spirits after scoring 10 unanswered goals over their last two games having beaten Southampton 3-0 last weekend before sticking seven on League One Barnsley in the Carabao Cup. Having been badly beaten themselves at Selhurst Park towards the back end of the 2023/24 campaign, this is the sort of match Erik ten Hag will hope his players can win if he is to get a more consistent tune from his expensively assembled Manchester United squad.
With Manuel Ugarte starting to find his feet following his summer signing from PSG, United will soon hope to put into place their plan to allow Kobbie Mainoo to slightly ease his workload, with Ten Hag keen to give him tactical respites now and then.
That will mean Casemiro’s likely continuation in the engine room alongside Ugarte. However, it seems efforts at landing an upgrade are starting to gather pace with Ederson now back on their radar.
According to TNT Sports Brasil, the 25-year-old is ‘still very much in their sights’ after a failed summer bid for the player, with his midweek Champions League outing against Arsenal only reinforcing Ashworth’s wish to sign him.
Per the report, United will need to spend at least €50m (£41.9m, $55.8m) to persuade Atalanta to sell and it may even take a fee of closer to €60m (£50.3m, $67m) to convince them to let him leave in January with deals in the winter window notoriously difficult to pull off.
Competition for his services, though, will be tough with Newcastle, Barcelona and Inter Milan listed as candidates for his signature.
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Ashworth fully focused on midfield upgrades.
While United did spend big money to bring Ugarte to the club over the summer, the Uruguayan is only seen really as phase one of the midfield rebuild Ashworth wants to put in place.
To that end, TEAMtalk can confirm that United are keen to move Casemiro along after doing their best to offload him over the summer.
While Ten Hag is a big fan of the player and has admirably stuck by him through difficult times, both Ashworth and minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe are keen to move him, believing the £350,000 a week he takes home does not represent particularly good value.
Indeed, United had been willing to sanction his exit this summer, having agreed terms to over a loan to Galatasaray, only for the player to put the brakes on the prospective move.
He is not the only midfielder potentially heading for the exit door either, with Christian Eriksen also set to leave Old Trafford in 2025 and with his deal due to expire next summer.
The Dane has been used more infrequently in recent times and will depart either as a free agent at the end of his deal or for a cut-price fee in the winter window.
Angel Gomes Man Utd return latest, Bayern pair also linked
As a result, Ashworth and Co are stepping up plans for at least one more addition themselves.
And in addition to Ederson, United are also keen to bring back former United midfielder Angel Gomes, with his deal at Lille also due to expire.
The recent England cap is wanted back at Old Trafford, though his potential return is threatened by two Premier League rivals.
United have also been linked with a move for Bayern Munich’s Leon Goretzka in recent days, with the 29-year-old struggling for game-time under Vincent Kompany after the summer signing of Joao Palhinha.
Perhaps more fancifully, United are also being linked with a move for Jamal Musiala with the 21-year-old very much admired by the club’s recruitment chiefs.
Musiala was one of the standouts of Euro 2024 thanks to his fine performances for Germany and faces an uncertain future at Bayern.
The 21-year-old’s contract is set to expire in the summer of 2026 and so far, the Bundesliga giants have been unable to tie him down to an extension.
How did Ederson compare to Casemiro last season?
While the clamour to sign Ederson is understandable given the starring role he had for Europa League winners, Atalanta, it may perhaps come as a surprise that Casemiro compared very favourably alongside him last season.
The two players boasted similar passing accuracy and a similar output in terms of goal contributions, with both claiming eight combined across the two metrics.
Casemiro, though, is a more frequent tackler, offering an average of 3.3 for each performance. Ederson, by contrast, only averaged two per game.
However, at seven years the junior to Casemiro, Ederson had more games in the tank, playing 53 times across the course of last season.