In 2013 Thiago Alcantara to Manchester United was all the rage.
Catalan newspapers had the story on their front pages repeatedly and there were several tangents on a potential move.
Wayne Rooney was brought into the equation, with it being claimed the pair could swap clubs. The former England international was pictured in a Barca kit and Thiago had United’s on.
That was in June, and in July he signed for Bayern Munich.
Since then Thiago has been linked to Manchester United every now and again, with that being the case at the moment. With two weeks left of the transfer window, something needs to give at Old Trafford and it’s been suggested in Germany that the midfielder is available.
A week ago Bild reported that Arturo Vidal, Jerome Boateng, Thiago Alcantara and Juan Bernat are up for transfer. But they didn’t link Jose Mourinho’s men to the former Barca player, it was Vidal instead.
On Tuesday, ESPN reported that both Manchester United and Chelsea have made contact about signing the player. They ended their article by saying: ‘Sport Bild reported last month that Thiago was keen on a return to his old club, but Kicker claimed Bayern wanted a €70 million fee and Barca would be reluctant to pay big money for a former player.’
In the grand tradition of Thiago claims, that isn’t actually what was reported and has been twisted.
In their magazine this week, Sport Bild don’t sound too confident about it.
At the bottom of an article on Ante Rebic it’s reported United really need to do some more business… ‘Especially because midfielder Paul Pogba wants to leave. The Frenchman was offered to Barcelona. United in turn has Thiago Alcantara of Bayern on the list, who is available for about €60m.’
Thiago is supposed to be available, despite what Bayern say publicly, Man United need signings, there’s links in both Germany and England… it just all feels a little ‘meh’ so far. That despite people claiming it, there’s not a great deal of confidence.
This should be an exciting potential transfer but doesn’t seem that way, maybe we’re still scarred from covering it all last time.
With so little time in the window at least there’s no time for a 2013 style saga.
