The Englishman\u2019s poor injury record<\/a> and his ageing legs mean he cannot be trusted to play multiple games in a week.<\/p>\n INEOS have failed to sign Lewis Hall from Newcastle, and the plan is to return for him next summer<\/a>. But till then, a backup needs to be sorted.<\/p>\n Luke Shaw\u2019s replacement needed ASAP<\/p>\n The 20-time English league champions do not want to spend big on a new left-back, and that rules out a late move for David Raum<\/a> of RB Leipzig.<\/p>\n Barcelona\u2019s Alejandro Balde was identified as a stop-gap signing, with United offering the La Liga champions a loan with an option to buy.<\/p>\n However, the Catalans are insisting on a permanent deal<\/a>. As revealed by Fabrizio Romano<\/a>, there was a late meeting on Sunday between United, Barcelona and Balde\u2019s agent, Jorge Mendes.<\/p>\n \u201cOn Balde, Man Utd believe the deal is too expensive. So Man Utd also informed by Jorge Mendes over the weekend, on Sunday, about any movement around Balde.<\/p>\n Alejandro Balde: meeting to break the deadlock fails<\/p>\n \u201cJorge Mendes made sure Man Utd had all the conditions of the deal but Manchester United were only interested on loan, maybe with a buy option clause, maybe becoming an obligation under certain conditions.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Jorge Mendes told Man Utd, as of today, Barcelona want permanent transfer or nothing. The player also is keen on staying at Barcelona, so that\u2019s the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n AC Milan<\/a>, another team in the race for Alejandro Balde, are facing the same obstacles, and only if the conditions change will a late move materialise.<\/p>\n Interestingly, Romano still believes United will sign a left-back for Michael Carrick<\/a> before transfer deadline. Who that will be remains a mystery.<\/p>\n Feature image Judit Cartiel via Getty Images<\/p>\n ![\"Follow](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/social-footer-working-qr.jpg\")
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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1 Manchester United are scrambling to sign a left-back before the transfer window slams shut on Tuesday. Luke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[933,92,1325,11379,263],"class_list":["post-78665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-barcelona","tag-alejandro-balde","tag-barcelona","tag-fabrizio-romano","tag-jorge-mendes","tag-manchester-united"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}