Given the severe cost-cutting endeavours being put into place by Sir Jim Ratcliffe in the last few months, Manchester United fans are not entering the January transfer window with high hopes.
In recent years, the winter window has posed as a quiet one for the Red Devils, primarily due to the lack of funds available after what follows a typical summer splurge.
If there’s one year for the situation to change, though, it really has to be this one. United will round off 2024 in 14th place after sustaining nine defeats in the first half of the campaign while also breaking a 62-year record of most league losses in a calendar month (five), previously set in September 1962. As such, reinforcements next month may be imperative for INEOS.
Casemiro eyeing Old Trafford exit in January
One way that incomings can be facilitated easier is if sales are made first. Marcus Rashford still faces a largely uncertain future at Old Trafford; despite returning to the matchday squad for the first time in four games last night, he was an unused substitute, meaning his last appearance came on December 12.
Elsewhere, reports – via UOL Esporte – on Monday revealed that Casemiro has ‘agreed to leave’ United in the coming weeks after being directly targeted by Saudi Pro League sides. The owners would undoubtedly be keen on sanctioning his exit and removing his £350,000-a-week wages from the books in the process.
The Brazilian made a rare start against Newcastle United in the absences of Bruno Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte but, as has so often been the case over the last year, looked a shell of his former, tenacious self.
