Here are your Manchester United morning headlines for Friday, August 11.
Wan-Bissaka opens up on Man United comeback
It was when Aaron Wan-Bissaka touched down in Perth with the Manchester United squad in July 2019 that he truly realised what he had got himself into. After one season in the Crystal Palace first-team, the right-back had made the leap to Old Trafford for a fee rising to £50million, becoming the sixth most expensive defender of all-time on the back of just 42 Premier League games.
Then aged 21, Wan-Bissaka was a symbol of United’s ‘cultural reset’ under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He was young, British and hungry. But he was also unexposed to anything like life in the goldfish bowl at Old Trafford, where the glare is blinding and the scrutiny relentless.
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Wan-Bissaka spent his 2018 pre-season in Denmark and Sweden, before games in Oxford, Stevenage and Reading. As a promising player at Palace, he could walk around London without being recognised on a regular basis. A year later he was in Australia, Singapore and Shanghai, being mobbed by thousands of fans and realising just how big the club he had joined was.
“As soon as we landed at the airport, it was a shock to me, but it’s good to see how big the fanbase is around the world,” said Wan-Bissaka.
The defender has also opened up on his struggles to hold down a first team place under Erik ten Hag.
United transfer plan detailed
Manchester United are already eyeing possible targets who will have a year left on their contract next summer.
Mason Mount became United’s first signing of this summer after he had entered the final year of his deal at Chelsea, which also alerted Arsenal and Liverpool.
United fought off competition to pay £55million up front for Mount with a further £5m in add-ons after Chelsea initially demanded £70m.
Several high-calibre players could go into the final year of their contract in 11 months’ time if they do not renew before then.
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