Manchester United chief holds Saudi Arabia talks with £230m quartet up for sale

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Manchester United are open to offers for Jadon Sancho, Casemiro, Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial with director John Murtough in Saudi Arabia for talks ahead of the January transfer window.

With Saudi Pro League clubs emerging as a more than useful landing spot for Premier League clubs looking to trim the fat, you can see why Manchester United are keen to join the party.

Few clubs in the division have quite as much deadwood cluttering up the Old Trafford dressing room, after all, with Jadon Sancho little more than a £350,000-a-week drain on United’s resources and Anthony Martial feeling like a dial-up modem in an uber-fast era of fibre optics.

Manchester United could tap into Saudi Arabian market

According to the Daily Mail, John Murtough – who could yet be kept on by INEOS albeit in a different role – has been in Saudi Arabia for transfer talks ahead of the January transfer window. The report does not share which clubs Murtough has held discussions with. Or, indeed, which players have Saudi Arabian interest.

But Sancho and Martial – plus Casemiro and Varane – are typical of the sort of player who tends to leave England for the Middle East. Out-of-favour big-names who, for many a club in the Saudi Pro League, would represent something of a marquee, statement addition.

Martial, according to The Athletic, is unlikely to be offered a new contract with his current Red Devils deal expiring next summer. United, then, will be keen to cash in while they still can, the likes of Marcos Leonardo and Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy lined up as potential replacements.

Raphael Varane shone in Liverpool draw

There will be few tears shed if Martial and Sancho leave.

Supporters may be a little more sad to see Varane and Casemiro go, however. Varane proved in Sunday’s 0-0 draw at Liverpool that there is still a world-class central defender in there, but a near-constant stream of injuries have rendered such displays few and far between. Casemiro has endured his fair share of fitness issues this season too, but his vast experience could still prove invaluable with Sofyan Amrabat yet to convince and Kobbie Mainoo still only 18.

Donny Van de Beek, meanwhile, is expected to secure a loan move to Eintracht Frankfurt imminently.