Injuries. The plague of all football clubs.
Few know that more than Manchester United these days, as a summer of letting Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sánchez leave for Inter without replacing them has come back to bite Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the backside.
Both Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial have suffered early season setbacks, leaving the Norwegian the only choice but to heavily rely on Mason Greenwood far earlier than anticipated.
One man who could have solved these issues is Mario Mandžukić, who had the chance to move to Old Trafford late in the English transfer window, but decided to stay at Juventus to fight for his spot under Maurizio Sarri.
Unfortunately for the Croatia international, that backfired, as he was left off the Champions League squad list by his manager, and has yet to feature in the league.
Since then, the Italian press have not let go of the story, making it clear Manchester United has remained an option, and is one Mandžukić is seriously considering.
Turning down the chance to move to Qatar, whose transfer window shuts on Monday, the target man will now have to wait until January to get a move away from Juventus.
Corriere dello Sport in Italy state the decision against moving to Old Trafford in the summer is Mandžukić’s ‘true regret’, with the newspaper explaining Solskjaer had been ‘courting him a long time’.
They then go on to claim this particular transfer, the one to Manchester United, ‘might only be postponed for six months’, suggesting the Premier League side could very well return in January, which falls in line with similar previous claims from Italy.
With Solskjaer learning the hard way about his potential problems with a lack of both experienced depth and a plan B in difficult games, this would make all the sense in the world, and considering Sarri isn’t using him and Juventus might be happy to see his wages go elsewhere, it should be a fairly simple transfer to pull off.
