\t\t\t3<\/i><\/p>\n
Manchester United have signed Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans this summer, but there is a belief that they still need a defensive midfielder to properly replace Casemiro. The veteran Brazilian played a crucial role in the Red Devils\u2019 third-place finish in the Premier League last season, but left this summer as a free agent. <\/p>\n
Casemiro has joined Inter Miami to start a new chapter in his career. Meanwhile, the English giants signed Santos from Chelsea and Tielemans from Aston Villa to upgrade their midfield, which is likely to be without the injured Manuel Ugarte for much of the upcoming season. <\/p>\n
Santos even made his first-team debut in the 1-0 defeat to Wrexham last weekend in United\u2019s first pre-season tie. Much is expected of the young Brazilian, as well as Tielemans, who is coming off an impressive campaign with the Villans. <\/p>\n
However, the Red Devils still need to add more steel to the middle of the park, and recent reports suggest that AS Roma\u2019s Manu Kone is on their wish list for the job. <\/p>\n
Kone\u2019s World Cup exploits<\/h3>\n
Kone was impressive for AS Roma last season and subsequently earned a place in the French squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The 25 year old appeared in five of Les Bleus\u2019 eight games at the tournament and gave a solid account of himself. <\/p>\n
Manu Kone Stats: 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/h2>\n
| Matchday<\/th>\n | Date<\/th>\n | They will oppose<\/th>\n | Result<\/th>\n | Position<\/th>\n | Goals<\/th>\n | Assists<\/th>\n | Yellow Cards<\/th>\n | Red Cards<\/th>\n | Minutes Played<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group I<\/td>\n | 17\/06\/26<\/td>\n | Senegal<\/td>\n | 3\u20131<\/td>\n | On the bench<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Group I<\/td>\n | 23\/06\/26<\/td>\n | Iraq<\/td>\n | 3\u20130<\/td>\n | DM<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | 90′<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Group I<\/td>\n | 27\/06\/26<\/td>\n | Norway<\/td>\n | 4\u20131<\/td>\n | CM<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | 90′<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Round of 32<\/td>\n | 01\/07\/26<\/td>\n | Sweden<\/td>\n | 3\u20130<\/td>\n | On the bench<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Round of 16<\/td>\n | 05\/07\/26<\/td>\n | Paraguay<\/td>\n | 1\u20130<\/td>\n | CM<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | 81′<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Quarter-Finals<\/td>\n | 10\/07\/26<\/td>\n | Morocco<\/td>\n | 2\u20130<\/td>\n | DM<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | 71′<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Semi-Finals<\/td>\n | 15\/07\/26<\/td>\n | Spain<\/td>\n | 0\u20132<\/td>\n | CM<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | 45′<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Third Place Play-Off<\/td>\n | 19\/07\/26<\/td>\n | England<\/td>\n | 6\u20134<\/td>\n | On the bench<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n | –<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The Frenchman\u2019s performances have forced his suitors to take note, and United are among the clubs in the running for his signature. A recent report relayed by The Peoples Person states that Al-Ahli are ready to hijack the Red Devils\u2019 pursuit of the Roma star. <\/p>\n Kone\u2019s resistance to the press, his ball-carrying ability, and defensive solidity make him an enticing option for United this summer. Acclaimed journalist Fabrizio Romano has now provided an update on the English giants\u2019 plans to sign the player. <\/p>\n Speaking on his YouTube channel, Romano insisted that United are yet to hold club-to-club negotiations with Roma for Kone. He said: \u201cFor Manu Kone, Man United had contacts with the camp of the player, so there were conversations last week.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI told you, it was an exclusive story here on the channel last week. Now the conversations continue, but Man United have to wait to understand how much they can spend on the defensive midfielder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as they can decide how much they spend on the defensive midfielder, and as soon as they clarify who is the wanted player, then Man United will go for the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment, Manu Kone remains on Manchester United\u2019s list, but still no bid to Roma, no club-to-club negotiations. That\u2019s the situation for Manu Kone as of today.\u201d<\/p>\n Romano went on to insist that Kone will not cost a fortune this summer, concluding: \u201cIf you see reports of \u20ac85-90m for Manu Kone, I\u2019m told that it\u2019s not accurate. I\u2019m hearing that the price tag would be lower for the French midfielder.\u201d<\/p>\n United have already missed out on several of their top targets this summer, including Elliot Anderson and Mateus Fernandes. As such, INEOS must step up their pursuit of Kone to ensure that a rival does not pip them to the Frenchman\u2019s signature. <\/p>\n Feature image Kevin C. Cox via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n The Peoples Person has been one of the world\u2019s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 3 Manchester United have signed Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans this summer, but there is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20380","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\/20380","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=20380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |
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<\/p>\n