{"id":436756,"date":"2025-12-10T01:30:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/436756\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T01:30:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T01:30:22","slug":"ratcliffe-eyes-unthinkable-arsenal-raid-as-gunners-must-sell-valuable-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/436756\/","title":{"rendered":"Ratcliffe eyes &#8216;unthinkable&#8217; Arsenal raid as Gunners &#8216;must sell valuable player&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal \u2018need to sell a valuable player\u2019 due to financial rules, and Manchester United are ready to capitalise by signing one of their best youngsters, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta\u2019s side spent over \u00a3250million last summer and are reportedly walking a financial tightrope, much like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/manchester-united\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Manchester United<\/strong><\/a> have been for a while.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal\u2019s strong start to 25\/26 in F365 Tables<\/p>\n<p>United are improving under Ruben Amorim and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/premier-league\/table\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>currently sit sixth in the Premier League table<\/strong><\/a>, eight points behind the Gunners at the top.<\/p>\n<p>They couldn\u2019t have done much worse than last season\u2019s 15th-place finish, and Amorim was backed with over \u00a3200million in new signings as his attack was completely transformed.<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha were all bought for big money, but the Red Devils are expected to be active in the winter transfer window, with a new central midfielder at the top of Amorim\u2019s wishlist.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his transfer team are already planning for January, with Brighton\u2019s Carlos Baleba and Nottingham Forest\u2019s Elliot Anderson among Amorim\u2019s midfield targets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MORE ON MAN UTD ON F365<br \/>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/premier-league-player-power-rankings-haaland-salah\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Premier League player power rankings: Fernandes up to third, Foden in top 10, no Salah or Van Dijk<\/a><br \/>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/premier-league-team-season-25-26\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bruno Fernandes claims spot in Premier League XI of season so far<\/a><br \/>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/opinion-man-utd-schoolboy-ange-keane-bellingham-starting-england-world-cup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Man Utd \u2018schoolboy\u2019 to anger Keane, Bellingham and everyone else by starting for England vs Croatia<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>However, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/indykaila\/status\/1998482843043832024\" target=\"_blank\">a report from an insider on X with a \u2018team of five elite reporters\u2019<\/a> says United are \u2018circling like sharks\u2019 to sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/arsenal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Arsenal<\/strong><\/a> wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s claimed that the Gunners \u2018need to sell a valuable player to fund future targets due to financial rules\u2019, and Nwaneri could be the one sacrificed.<\/p>\n<p>If the \u2018unthinkable\u2019 happens and United sign Nwaneri, they are likely to sell or loan out academy graduate Kobbie Mainoo.<\/p>\n<p>Nwaneri signed a new contract earlier this year but has found minutes very difficult to come by in 2025\/26, leaving him \u2018fed up\u2019 as he is \u2018barely getting a kick\u2019 and his career is \u2018stalling hard\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/tag\/ruben-amorim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Amorim<\/strong><\/a> is a \u2018big admirer\u2019 of the 18-year-old and \u2018would love to manage him\u2019, it\u2019s added.<\/p>\n<p>Man Utd need a midfielder, not an attacker<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s clear that United\u2019s priority should be signing a new midfielder, but Brighton and Forest will want an absolute fortune for Baleba and Anderson, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, Casemiro has been very good this season, which has lessened the need to spend big on a central midfielder. But we\u2019ve seen in the past that his form can nosedive easily, and an injury to the Brazilian could spark a midfield crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Amorim is reluctant to play Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo together, meaning an injury to Casemiro would force the United head coach to start Manuel Ugarte.<\/p>\n<p>Ugarte has massively underperformed since joining United from Paris Saint-Germain, and whenever he comes onto the pitch, they seem to play much worse.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, if United receive a sufficient offer for Casemiro from Saudi Arabia, they will definitely consider it. Despite his form, he is 33 years old, one of the club\u2019s highest earners on \u00a3300,000 a week, and is out of contract at the end of the season, though there is a club option to extend to 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Nwaneri isn\u2019t an out-and-out central midfielder and would be out of place in that position in a 3-4-2-1, but he\u2019d be outstanding as one of Amorim\u2019s wide 10s behind the striker.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to note that there is very little chance this transfer happens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/why-man-utd-furious-win-highlight-biggest-problem-amorim-sack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Are Man Utd \u2018moving in the right direction\u2019? Or did win \u2018highlight\u2019 biggest problem ahead of Amorim?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal \u2018need to sell a valuable player\u2019 due to financial rules, and Manchester United are ready to capitalise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":436757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[5407,22020,9655,3782,50,220,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-436756","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-ethan-nwaneri","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-manchester-united","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}