Manager gives update on Hannibal Mejbri at Sevilla amid lack of game time

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Hannibal Mejbri appears to be making progress at Sevilla with the Premier League loanee belatedly adapting to life away from Manchester United.

That is according to Quique Sanchez Flores, the Sevilla head coach striking a far more positive tone when asked to provide an update on a player who’s attitude came into question following a less-than-impressive start to life at the La Liga outfit a month ago.

Hannibal Mejbri has played only nine minutes of football since that calamitous debut performance against Girona. He did not even get off the bench during last week’s narrow defeat at a Luka Modric-inspired Real Madrid.

But, while refusing to confirm whether the Manchester United-owned midfielder will be involved against Real Sociedad on Saturday, Sanchez Flores does sound like a man impressed about the way Hannibal has got his head down in recent weeks.

Manchester United loanee is making progress in La Liga

“The boy is reaching another level of understanding and is now capable of playing at any time,” the former Watford coach tells Diario de Sevilla.

“This has been a more mental adaption than a footballing one. Going from the Premier League to La Liga, which is very different.

“And moving to a team with a very difficult situation. From Manchester United, which was fighting among the top five, to Sevilla, which is among the bottom seven. It is very different.

“(Hannibal) had to be grounded, put (the challenge) into perspective and now it is the coach who has to play him.”

£14 million sale feels unlikely

There is a £14 million option-to-buy clause in the contract Hannibal signed in January. It feels unlikely in the extreme that Sevilla will look to trigger that by the season’s end, however, meaning that whatever happens the former Birmingham City loanee will find himself back at Old Trafford come the summer.

Fellow loanees Donny van de Beek and Jadon Sancho have also struggled to establish themselves, in the Bundesliga with Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund respectively. It’s been a different – and altogether happier – story for Facundo Pellistri at Granada, however.

Pellistri set up two goals in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Barcelona last month. 

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