Barcelona to ‘close deal’ with Sir Jim Ratcliffe ‘obliged’ to replace ‘great £80m-rated forward’

Barcelona to ‘close deal’ with Sir Jim Ratcliffe ‘obliged’ to replace ‘great £80m-rated forward’

According to reports, Manchester United are looking to sign FC Barcelona star Raphinha with the Brazil international at risk of being ‘sacrificed’.

A major overhaul is expected at Old Trafford ahead of next season and this follows the arrival of Sir Jim Ratcliffe as their new co-owner.

The INEOS chief has only purchased a minority stake in the Premier League giants but he has taken control of footballing matters at Old Trafford and is in the process of improving their recruitment model.

This has been a miserable season for Man Utd. They have reached the FA Cup final but they exited the Champions League and Carabao Cup prematurely, while they sit sixth in the Premier League.

A recent report claimed ‘almost every player’ at Man Utd is up for sale and Marcus Rashford is among the talents who could be offloaded this summer.

Rashford was sensational for Man Utd last season as he scored 30 goals across all competitions but his form has declined this term.

According to a report from Spanish outlet Nacional, Man Utd will ‘study’ Rashford’s exit in the summer as he has been a ‘great disappointment’ this season.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Juventus and PSG are all mentioned as potential destinations for Rashford and it is noted that ‘Ratcliffe would be obliged to sign a guaranteed replacement for the attacker’.

AC Milan’s Rafael Leao and Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are ‘on the agenda’ but Raphinha is also being monitored with Barcelona considering an ‘interesting sacrifice’.

Regarding what Barcelona are ‘demanding’ to ‘close a deal’, the report adds: ‘Joan Laporta is the first to lose sight of Raphinha as soon as possible since with this money he could bring Nico Williams, or footballers he believes would work much better at Barcelona.

‘And he will request 60 million euros (£51m) from the Red Devils’.

It is not just the Man Utd players at risk as head coach Erik ten Hag is under huge pressure heading into the summer. Club legend Gary Neville has told his former club to give the Dutchman “one more season”.

“I said a couple of weeks, I hope he gets another season to sort of prove and said the same with Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea, I felt more certain after having spoke to him and seeing the sort of reaction today of United fans that he’s always had a lot of support from United fans,” Neville said on Sky Sports.

“United fans don’t turn on the manager and I felt that he would be in a position to stay one more year. Look some of the performances have been really poor and unforgivable at times, you think of what happened in the semi-final against Coventry. Some of the performances in the league that we’ve seen have been terrible.

“I do feel that giving Erik ten Hag one more season will definitely work for Ten Hag I think the fans to be fair wouldn’t have a problem with it. And I think even for INEOS to allow them just to bed into the club and not have to think about replacing a manager in the next couple of months.”