Icardi, Rabiot and Ronaldo - Man Utd face another season of chaos
FT Desk
- 12 Aug 2022 08:27 CDT
- 4 min read
Manchester United have been linked with moves for Mauro Icardi and Adrien Rabiot, while Cristiano Ronaldo continues to stink out the new era under Erik ten Hag.
Ronaldo wants to leave, that much is known, with the player desperate to add to his record 140 goals in the Champions League and United not playing in that competition this season.
He missed the Red Devils' pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia, and was only fit enough for the bench in the opening day 2-1 defeat to Brighton. Unfit and unmotivated, potential suitors for the 37-year-old haven't been forthcoming.
With Anthony Martial injured - and still needing to convince in his own right - and Marcus Rashford flirting with PSG, a surprise player moving in the other direction has emerged as a potential attacking candidate at Old Trafford: Icardi.
Imagine the CHAOS if Mauro Icardi joins Man Utd 🤯https://t.co/fJKCzx7O1Y
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) August 10, 2022
His current coach Christophe Galtier has admitted that such a move could be possible.
"The club is working closely with Mauro to find the best possible solution," he said. "Mauro has had very little playing time in the last few seasons, I think it's important for him to get back on track. I think it's important for him to get back into the game.
"I think that in the interest of Mauro and also in the interest of the club, we should find the best possible compromise, that is to say, a club where he can express his qualities."
Chequered pasts
Icardi may know where the goal is - as his record of 203 strikes in 383 club games attests - but he also has more baggage than your average transatlantic flight given his turbulent, and often public, relationship with wife and agent Wanda Nara and repeated fallings out with PSG and former employers Inter Milan over the years.
Add that personality and playing position into a squad that is struggling to ship Ronaldo, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Behind either one of them will likely be Rabiot this season, with personal terms already agreed with the player while United and Juventus thrash out a transfer fee expected to be around €18 million.
Rabiot may be a 29-time France international who has won league titles in France and Italy, but he also brings some unwelcome baggage to Old Trafford. Where Icardi's relationship with his wife adds to those unwelcome column inches, for Rabiot it is his mother, who also acts as his agent.
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"My son is a hostage of the club, he will soon live in prison on bread and water," she once said when Rabiot was demoted to PSG's reserves. Veronique Rabiot was banned from Paris's training ground and more recently pulled plugs on moves to Roma and Tottenham Hotspur.
Rabiot costing a significant fee while Paul Pogba - a superior midfielder - moves in the opposite direction to Juventus on a free, further sums up United's disastrous transfer business this summer.
United are hoping for a new era under Ten Hag, but with Icardi, Rabiot and Ronaldo in the house, he will have his hands very full indeed.
