{"id":17178,"date":"2026-07-14T09:18:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=17178"},"modified":"2026-07-14T09:18:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:18:13","slug":"man-utd-confirm-first-major-summer-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=17178","title":{"rendered":"Man Utd confirm first major summer signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/NewsArticle\">\n<!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<h6>News<span> \u00bb <\/span>Premier League news<span> \u00bb <\/span>Manchester United news<\/h6>\n<p class=\"articletimestamp\">July 13, 2026 18:34 GMT (UK), by <!-- Author Start -->Sri Aswin<!-- Author End -->\n<\/p>\n<h6>View Man Utd summer 2026 transfer targets<\/h6>\n<div style=\"float:right\">\n<figure>\n<p class=\"article_image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eyefootball.com\/imghold\/largestAndreySantosChelsea.jpg\" title=\"Andrey Santos news\" alt=\"Andrey Santos news\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">Santos joins Man Utd<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><span itemprop=\"articleBody\"><br \/>\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-size:16px\">\n<strong>Manchester United have confirmed the signing of Chelsea midfielder <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Andrey Santos<\/span><\/span>  on a long-term contract.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p>The Blues initially looked at signing Atalanta midfielder Ederson, but pulled the plug on the deal after concerns over his knee.<\/p>\n<p>They have now followed it up by landing Santos from the Blues instead. He will immediately join the club for pre-season.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, United have also made progress towards signing <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Youri Tielemans<\/span><\/span>  from Aston Villa. He has a release clause worth\u00a0\u00a335 million in his contract which has been triggered by United.<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian is expected to undergo his medical in the next 24 hours before an announcement. Tielemans, however, won&#8217;t join the club immediately due to his recent World Cup exploits.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old will reportedly have a three-week break before joining his new teammates. He should be in the squad for the curtain-raiser against newly-promoted Hull City on the road.<\/p>\n<p>The Red Devils are expected to make signings after Santos and Tielemans. The club are targeting a marquee midfield acquisition alongside the duo, ideally before the start of the new campaign.<br \/><!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p>  <!-- newadv --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\nvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)(0);\nif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\njs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\njs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\nfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News \u00bb Premier League news \u00bb Manchester United news July 13, 2026 18:34 GMT (UK),&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}