The Álvaro Carreras situation is starting to get ever so slightly boring.
The story is roughly this: Manchester United loaned him out to Granada at the end of the summer 2023 window. That move didn’t go according to plan so he was recalled in January and sent to Benfica.
It was again a loan move, but the Lisbon club negotiated a low purchase clause. The reason it was low, around €6m, was that if used Manchester United would then be able to buy him back for €20m.
The initial loan at Benfica didn’t go too well but they stuck with it and used their clause. Things have gone better this season with new manager Bruno Lage and the 21-year-old left-back has played 16 games.
He’s scored two goals and added an assist and there’s been endless talk about Manchester United using their clause in a coming window.
Other clubs are also being linked, such as Liverpool, Barcelona and Real Madrid, and the situation is perhaps getting carried away with itself.
Portuguese newspaper Record now take things even further.
They report Benfica ‘have a plan’ to keep Carreras and ‘escape’ the Manchester United buyback clause.
And what is this cunning plan being cooked up in Lisbon? Well, basically try to not sell him back to Manchester United for any of the next four windows and therefore see that clause expire so they can sell for more elsewhere.
Baldrick would be proud.
Record mention Real Madrid interest, and the gist seems to be that Carreras can be tempted to ignore Manchester United in the hope of Los Blancos turning up and signing him for more money.
Real Madrid would obviously have a say in this, which is perhaps where the plan falls to pieces.
Even if they did rate the player, the idea of Florentino Perez being keen to pay more than Manchester United would have to, and getting that extra money from Real Madrid being part of a long term plan, doesn’t feel very realistic.
