Kieran Trippier’s future was never going to get sorted out while he was at Euro 2020 with England.
Now the tournament is over, the rumours around his next move will ramp up and something might actually happen.
It has been reported that he’s willing to tell Atletico Madrid he wants out and Manchester United are his first choice.
The asking price is apparently around £30 million. That’s not ridiculous but still feels a bit high for a 30-year-old right-back with a year left on his contract, although Atletico do have an option to extend it by another 12 months.
Talking of England internationals with a year left on their contract and a reported asking price of £30 million, Jesse Lingard’s future is still up in the air.
90Min are now reporting that Atletico Madrid are interested in bringing the United midfielder to La Liga.
Diego Simeone is apparently a big fan of Lingard and the midfielder has asked his representatives to seek out potential options abroad.
The report claims that a swap between Lingard and Trippier is not being discussed yet. But it could be an ideal solution for both clubs.
Swap deal?
United and Atletico must both be aware that asking for £30 million for players who aren’t getting any younger and have dwindling contracts is a lot.
Why are they doing it? Part of it is to save face, to avoid the ignominy of letting an established international leave for a fraction of their true value.
And part of it is so that they can bring in a new face or two with the money.
We even wrote in our Trippier report that selling Lingard could raise a large chunk of the money required to sign the defender.
This would just cut out the middle man.
It seems Trippier really wants to come back to Manchester and Lingard is keen to explore a move abroad.
Wages shouldn’t be a huge problem. Atletico can pay well and so can United.
It could well be the last big contract either player signs but neither has a huge ego and looks likely to demand silly wages.
And a swap would cut the need to haggle on transfer fees and add-ons. It’s something United should at least be looking into as a way of getting Trippier through the door if they’re serious about signing him.
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