Manchester United are reportedly planning to make a move to sign Bayern Munich midfielder João Palhinha, as per Caught Offside.
After joining Fulham from Sporting CP, the 29-year-old displayed promising performances in the Premier League, and having been impressed by him, the Bavarian club decided to hire him last summer.
However, the Portuguese international struggled to find regular game time under Vincent Kompany last term. So, speculation surrounding his future has started emerging during this transfer window.
Now, Caught Offside state that Bayern Munich are open to letting Palhinha leave this summer, and the player’s agent has been exploring options to take the midfielder back to the Premier League.
Man Utd are interested in the former Fulham star as Ruben Amorim is ‘keen’ on including him in his squad. A loan deal might be ideal for the Red Devils amid their financial difficulties, but the German giants only want to sell him permanently for a fee of at least £26m.
Palhinha initially flourished in his career at Sporting CP under Amorim’s guidance and even won a Liga Portugal title together before parting ways.
Palhinha to Man Utd
However, the report say that Palhinha has other suitors as well, with Fulham, West Ham United, Nottingham Forest, and SL Benfica being among those. So, purchasing him won’t be straightforward for Amorim’s side.
Palhinha is a defensive midfielder by trait, but is also comfortable in the box-to-box role. He is a robust CDM rather than a deep-lying playmaker, and Kompany likes to deploy a technically gifted creative player at the base of the midfield.
So, the Belgian and Palhinha weren’t the best marriage, but Amorim likes to use a hard-working player in the engine room. Therefore, the Bayern Munich man would be an ideal option for the Portuguese boss’s system.
United currently have Manuel Ugarte, Casemiro, Kobbie Mainoo, and Bruno Fernandes as the midfield options. But apart from the Uruguayan, others don’t have the intensity to play in Amorim’s style, with the Brazilian showing clear signs of decline in recent seasons.
So, Palhinha would raise the physicality of the squad should the Old Trafford club eventually manage to secure his service before the end of this transfer window.
