It’s that time of the year again, when the Matteo Darmian stories start rearing their ugly head again.
Despite being strongly touted throughout the summer to be one of the exits at Old Trafford, the Italian defender remains at Manchester United, only to serve as an emergency option for José Mourinho.
Darmian never hid his desire to return to his home country over the summer, and while his contract does run out next June, the Red Devils have the option to extend it for a further year should they decide not to lose the 28-year-old on a free come June.
Paying £16m or so for him in the first place, Manchester United wanted most of that back, but no one came forward with any concrete offers.
Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday claim his profile is still of interest to a number of sides in Serie A, with Napoli and Inter ‘following him closely’, while Juventus are described as being ‘omnipresent’.
The first two were named sporadically over the summer, but Max Allegri’s side were indeed the favourites to land Darmian, and there were reports he was extremely close at times to realising his dream return.
Considering Mourinho’s reluctance to use the Italian, preferring Ashley Young over him, it seems somewhat pointless keeping him around beyond this season, meaning it’s time to put him out of his misery.
That’s just our view on it, but maybe Manchester United have other plans.
