Man Utd transfer: INEOS ‘blocked’ Erik ten Hag late signing as they chose ‘different direction’

Man Utd co-owners INEOS ‘blocked’ Erik ten Hag’s move to re-sign Sofyan Amrabat before the transfer deadline, according to reports.

The Red Devils completed deals for Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte over the summer transfer window as the INEOS era begins at Old Trafford.

Man Utd were linked with a number of other players but sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox were happy with their work in INEOS’ first window at the helm.

Ten Hag pushed to sign Morocco international Amrabat – who had a fairly unsuccessful loan spell at Old Trafford last season – before the deadline but Ashworth and Wilcox stopped any potential deal in its tracks.

TalkSPORT claims :

‘Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag was blocked from re-signing Sofyan Amrabat by the club’s new hierarchy.

‘Ten Hag presented a case to bring back Amrabat, who had a mixed loan spell last season before impressing in the shock FA Cup final win over Manchester City, but sporting director Dan Ashworth and technical director Jason Wilcox decided to go in a different direction.

‘TalkSPORT understands Everton also explored a move for the Morocco international late in the transfer window, but he has since signed for Fenerbahce on loan from Fiorentina.’

But it is said that Ten Hag is ‘understood to be fully on board with Wilcox and Ashworth leading their recruitment after the under-pressure Dutchman took a lead role in previous windows.’

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Zirkzee is the striker who Man Utd selected to give competition to Rasmus Hojlund this season and former Red Devils striker Andy Cole has given his assessment of the former Bologna forward’s first three performances.

Cole told Betfred: “He looks lively enough. He’s already come out and said that he’s not a number nine, but more of a nine and a half. I think Manchester United just want somebody that’s going to score goals and he got himself in good positions at times against Liverpool on Sunday and could have done a little bit better with some of the chances he got.

“He’s only three games into his Manchester United career, so we can’t be judgemental of a player that’s started only one game and it was a big game to start against Liverpool. There’s a long way to go and there’s a hell of a lot of football to be played.”

On Mazraoui, Cole added: “He looks good. He’s comfortable on the ball, gets forward and he produced a good save from Alisson on Sunday. It’s not often that you see right-backs in those areas. From what I’ve seen of him so far, he looks like a very good attacking full-back and he’s a signing that I believe will do well.”

Ugarte was one of the most high-profile additions over the summer but Cole admits he doesn’t know much about the new Man Utd midfielder.

Cole continued: “It’s difficult for me to speak about Ugarte because I’ve not seen him play too much. He hardly played for PSG last season in the Champions League, despite playing more frequently in Ligue 1, so it will be interesting to finally see what type of player he is.

“He sounds like a player that likes to win the ball and give it to whoever he needs to give it to, so I’m just looking forward to seeing him play, like everybody else is.

“We can’t expect him to come into the team and fix everything because he’s just one player in a team. They’ve all got to work at it. I don’t believe the start of the season has been as bad as everybody’s making out.

“They won against Fulham, they should have got a result against Brighton and yesterday was obviously disappointing, even more so that they’ve now got to wait two weeks to put things right.”

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