According to the Sunday Mirror, Manchester United will need to fork out a whopping £450 million if they are to land Uruguay star Federico Valverde in the next transfer window, whenever that may be.
Valverde and his value
The 21-year-old Real Madrid star has impressed a lot over the course of this season – which has seen him break into the Los Blancos first team. His performances have drawn a lot of praise, as well as comparisons to Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard.
Manager Zinedine Zidane has begun to see Valverde as a vital member of his squad and, as a result, Real Madrid have let other teams – Manchester United included – that if they are to land him, they will need to meet his £450 million release clause.
That move would, quite clearly, be a world record move by some margin – smashing the £200 million paid by PSG to Barcelona for Neymar three years ago. Obviously, it isn’t going to happen for that price.
This season, Valverde has made 32 appearances across all competitions, scoring two goals and assisting a further four. While he has impressed, he’s hardly burst onto the scene in the way someone like Kylian Mbappe did.
The tool we normally use to assess a players worth is their market value on transfermarkt.com. Currently, Valverde is rated at £54 million on the German football site – a fair valuation given his age and performances.
For me, his age and his potential would boost his worth a fair bit to something in the region of £70 million. He’s certainly not worth a nine figure sum – not yet anyway.
Manchester United and their needs
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has already said he thinks United need three more players through the door to get themselves in a position wherein they can challenge for the Premier League title.
“We feel we are improving all the time,” Solksjaer told ESPN earlier this month.
“We know we lack one, two, three players to be considered a title contender and some experience and we know that.
“We are just going to start talking about going up the table, getting more points.”
The idea is to add some more quality to the midfield area of the pitch to help solidify that area. They already added Bruno Fernandes in January – the Portuguese star has hit the ground running in Manchester but could do with some more help.
Paul Pogba has spent the majority of this season on the treatment table and beyond that, United are running low on elite level midfielders. Someone like Valverde would add an extra dimension to that United midfield area – it would be a brilliant coup.
However, given that Real Madrid are quoting Valverde’s release clause in an attempt to dissuade Manchester United, it seems as though it’ll be tough to complete any kind of deal.
I don’t think even for a second that Madrid are serious about the £450 million valuation. If they got an offer over the £100 million mark – or possibly an offer including a certain French midfielder, they’d be willing to play ball.
Personally, I can’t see this move happening for a multitude of reasons – but I do think Manchester United will add at least one more elite player to their midfield in the next window.
In a rather unprecedented turn of events, we don’t actually know for sure when the next transfer window will be.
With the COVID-19 crisis having brought football to a stop, governing bodies are considering delaying the summer window so they can get the current seasons finished. We’re living in crazy times – and if this deal happens, it’d only be further evidence of that.
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