Man United could offer Mason Greenwood in player-plus-cash swap deal for £60m Serie A star

Man United could offer Mason Greenwood in player-plus-cash swap deal for £60m Serie A star

Manchester United are prepared to use Mason Greenwood as a sweetener in a player-plus-cash deal for Juventus star Gleison Bremer in the summer transfer window.

Bremer completed a move from Torino to Juventus after being named Serie A’s best defender for 2021/22 and the 27-year-old’s stock has continued to soar across his opening two years in Turin.

The centre-back has started all but one of Juve’s games in the Italian top flight this term and his outstanding performances have been a key factor in the club boasting the second-best defensive record in the league behind leaders Inter Milan.

It’s understood United have been monitoring Bremer’s displays across the campaign and the club are reportedly pursuing a bid to prise Bremer away from Juve under the recommendation of incoming sporting director Dan Ashworth.

United are well aware that Bremer will not come cheap, with Juventus demanding a fee of at least €60-70million (£51-60m) plus bonuses for their prized possession according to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

The report claims the Red Devils ‘do not seem scared’ about the possibility of satisfying Juve’s hefty financial demands for Bremer and could even use Greenwood as a makeweight in a deal for the Brazil international.

The Serie A giants have grown increasingly resigned to losing Bremer at the end of the season and have identified Bologna’s Riccardo Calafiori as a potential successor at the heart of their defence.

Bremer put pen to paper on a new contract with the Old Lady in December, tying the sought-after Brazilian to the club until 2028.

It’s understood Juve sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli is an admirer of Greenwood, which United could use to their advantage in their pursuit of Bremer.

After United concluded their internal probe into Greenwood’s actions off the pitch, the forward – capped once by England – completed a loan switch to Getafe.

In January 2022, Greenwood, at the time considered one of Europe’s finest young talents, was arrested on suspicion of rape, controlling behaviour and assault – charges which were later dropped.

The Red Devils subsequently decided Greenwood should resume his career elsewhere and the 22-year-old has impressed in Spain, racking up six goals and five assists in 24 La Liga appearances.

It remains to be seen where Greenwood will be plying his trade next season, with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid both credited with an interest in the attacker, as well as Juventus.

Speaking shortly after his £1.3bn partial takeover at Old Trafford, Sir Jim Ratcliffe appeared to indicate that Greenwood could still have a future at United.

‘We will make a decision, correct,’ Ratcliffe said.

‘All I can do is talk about the principle of how we will approach decisions like that. Is he the right type of footballer, are we happy with if he is a good person or not?

‘He’s a Manchester United footballer, so we are in charge of football.

‘So the answer is, “Yeah, we have to make decisions”. It’s quite clear we have to make a decision. There is no decision that’s been made.

‘He’s on loan obviously, but he’s not the only one. We’ve got one or two footballers that we have to deal with and we have to make a decision on, so we will do that.

‘The process will be: understand the facts not the hype, and then try and come to fair decision on the basis of values, which is basically is he a good guy or not?

‘Could he play sincerely for Manchester United well, would we be comfortable with it and would the fans be comfortable with it