Reports have surfaced last month claiming the Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is looking to strengthen his midfield when the next transfer window opens in January in a bid to add some much-needed quality to his squad, which has been struggling with efficiency throughout this season.
According to reports, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been eyeing Atletico Madrid star Saúl Ñíguez, who he believes will be an excellent signing in January and a great addition to his midfield, however, the 25-year-old Spaniard won’t come cheap, considering he has become one of the crucial members for Diego Simeone’s squad.
Saúl Ñíguez started his career in Real Madrid U17 and later moved to Atletico Madrid’s youth squad in 2008. From there he climbed the ranks and entered Atletico Madrid’s B team in summer 2010 and only three years later got promoted into Atletico Madrid’s main squad. A couple of months later he got loaned out to Rayo Vallecano where he spent one-year gaining experience before returning back to Atletico in 2014, where he remained since.
To date, Saúl Ñíguez has played a total of 272 games for Atletico Madrid during which he scored 36 goals and added 18 assists. While his goal and assist numbers are nothing spectacular, Ñíguez has become one of the crucial members of the team, showing immense potential and growth, which did not go unnoticed by other European football giants, more specifically Manchester United.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has reportedly been very keen on signing the 25-year-old midfielder as a replacement for either Marouane Fellaini or Ander Herrera who left the team earlier this year, leaving Man Utd with a huge void in the midfield that needs to be filled. Furthermore, rumours surfaced Pogba is set to leave Man United to re-join with Juventus once more, meaning Solskjaer desperately needs to add more players in his midfield in order to fill all the gaps left behind by the departed players.
While, Solskjaer already has Fred, Scott McTominay and Andreas Pereira at his disposal, neither of the players managed to impress. Despite their showing some glimpses of their abilities, none of the trio reached the needed level of consistency and understandably Solskjaer will look to fix that by bringing in more players this January.
It’s also worth noting that Man Utd have been linked with Saúl Ñíguez for numerous years, dating back to 2015, when the Red Devils were looking to sign the promising Spanish midfielder, but nothing came out of it back then. In fact, it was said that United passed on the chance to sign Saúl Ñíguez, and it seems like they needed four years to finally figure out the potential this man has.
“This is a man that as an 18-year-old was offered to Everton and they said no. As a 20-year-old he was offered to Manchester United and Manchester United said no,” said LaLiga expert Guillem Balague when he talked about the possible Ñíguez’s departure to the English Premier League.
While a very solid player, there are some concerns over his signing, not necessarily due to the lack of his quality, but rather Man United’s poor track record of signing players in the January transfer window. They have signed numerous players after New Year before, some, or shall we say most of which proved to be poor decisions on their part.
That being said, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will most likely be left with no other option than to push for this signing as he will be desperate to strengthen the midfield recent rumours prove to be true and Pogba ends up leaving the team.
Other speculations also tied Todd Cantwell to Man United, who would replace the injured Scott McTominay in the midfield, meaning Man Utd could see the arrival of two new midfielders this January, however, none of the two have been confirmed just yet.
