There’s a familiar playbook in football transfers: miss your first-choice target, then scramble to revive a deal you previously walked away from. Manchester United appears to be running that exact play with Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba, a 22-year-old Cameroon international who has reportedly been eager to make the move to Old Trafford since last summer.
The renewed interest comes after United failed to land other midfield options, including Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali.
The gap between want and willingness to pay
Brighton has reportedly set their asking price somewhere between £80 million and £100 million for Baleba. United’s previous valuation of the player sat considerably lower, in the range of £50 million to £75 million.
A deal that never fully died
