From Portugal: Deal for Lindelof still on, maybe Manchester United are using new strategy

 

As you probably know by now, the BBC published an article on Wednesday saying Manchester United had given up on signing Victor Lindelof from Benfica.

The reason for it would be because José Mourinho is satisfied with Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo, so a big move in January wouldn’t be needed.

As the Portuguese newspapers were already giving the transfer as certain, we expected a big noise from them in today’s editions. But they aren’t really concerned.

The three big sport newspapers in Portugal (A Bola, O Jogo and Record) are all agreeing on one thing: Benfica weren’t told about Manchester United’s plans to step back.

They all claim that the deal is on and should still be done for around €45m.

Although Lindelof is included in the weekend’s match-day squad for a Cup game, he’s said to be just waiting for the transfer to be done.

He won’t be even used in the game.

A Bola is the only paper who take another angle by saying that by telling the English press they’ve given up on the deal, Manchester United could be trying to convince Benfica to lower the price.

But if Benfica take it as the Portuguese newspapers did, they won’t even blink after the threat.

This one refuses to die.