Dear Manchester United fans, we ask you kindly to look back to July, back when Donny Van de Beek looked on his way to Real Madrid and Ed Woodward wasn’t quite sure how to approach his club’s transfer market.
Jadon Sancho was an obvious target, one they would end up missing out on, but there was also a need for a midfielder, with multiple names being thrown around as potential targets.
Among those was Ismaël Bennacer, formerly of Arsenal, who currently plies his trade in Italy while being contracted to Milan.
In early July, Compétition in Algeria, the country the midfielder represents internationally, claimed Manchester United were ‘following’ the player’s situation at the Serie A club alongside their noisy city neighbours and a couple of other European clubs, and were simply ‘waiting for the green light’ to jump into action.
At the time, it was said a fee of €50m ‘could force’ Milan to ‘think’ about selling their player, but such a fee never arrived.
That will all change next summer, however, as Calciomercato on Wednesday remind everyone Bennacer will, from that point onwards, have a €50m release clause in his contract.
This could be a problem for them, which is what MilanLive point out, recalling that Manchester United were one of the teams who had been ‘thinking’ about the France born midfielder over the summer.
It’s said the release clause would make next summer ‘a bit more complicated’, but we all know an exit would ultimately rest with Bennacer himself.
He’s currently a key player in Stefano Pioli’s plans in Milan, and you would think only a very enticing offer, or his current club missing out yet again on Champions League football, could lead to him leaving.
Either way, if Manchester United are indeed still interested and keeping an eye on the Algeria international, next summer should be the best time for them to pounce as no green light will be needed then.
