Manchester United discover free ‘transfer masterstroke’ as Plan B after £65m ‘snub’

Manchester United have suffered a blow in their pursuit of £65m-rated(?) Elliot Anderson, but a free ‘transfer masterstroke’ has emerged.

After one Championship start for Hull City, Toby Collyer is ready to replace Casemiro.

But first, Arsenal are still quite rubbish.

Barely a year has passed since Charlie Wyett referred to Arsenal as ‘more mentality muppets than monsters’; only 11 months ago he wrote that ‘deluded’ Mikel Arteta had to ‘accept that his club has gone backwards’.

That second criticism came after Arsenal were beaten in the Champions League semi-finals by Paris Saint-Germain, while sitting 15 points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool with three games of the season remaining.

With the Gunners now top of that table by nine points with seven games left and with one foot and at least a toe or two in the Champions League semis again , it is worth wondering what The Sun ‘s chief football correspondent makes of Arsenal now.

He was thankfully on match report duty in Lisbon with a piece which concludes:

‘Ultimately, it still seems unlikely that Arsenal will win the Champions League because even though their quadruple hopes have died, it is all about the Premier League. ‘However, a win in Budapest on May 30 would be nice.’

It would be lovely. Winning the actual Champions League would be mightily pleasant. A real delight.

A reminder that while ‘it still seems unlikely that Arsenal will win the Champions League’, they are the competition favourites in many markets and second best at worst behind Bayern Munich.

All in all, writing about a 1-0 away win which puts Arsenal in control of the tie and on the brink of reaching the last four, that ‘it still seems unlikely’ they will win the Champions League, is quite the take.

Is Arteta still the ‘deluded’ one? And have Arsenal still ‘gone backwards’?

Mediawatch is not saying that the latest transfer exclusive from Jeremy Cross should be taken with an entire swimming pool of salt, but his recent hit rate from shouts of Alexis Mac Allister to Manchester United, Igor Thiago to Aston Villa and Federico Valverde to Manchester United does not bode particularly well.

Still, he is busy revealing in the Daily Mirror that ‘Manchester City believe they have won the race to sign Elliot Anderson’.

The headline is that ‘Elliot Anderson snubs Man Utd with Man City in pole position to complete £65m transfer’. Hmm. You don’t have to be a fan of the brum-brums to know that being in pole position and winning the race is not the same thing.

And by the second paragraph, ‘Etihad chiefs’ are merely ‘confident of landing Anderson in a £65m deal’. That is quite the climbdown from a won race.

Hell, by the fourth paragraph, Anderson ‘has let it be known that the Etihad is his preferred choice’. Which is not exactly the emphatic victory the story is sold on; ask Morgan Gibbs-White whether Evangelos Marinakis gives a toss about what a Nottingham Forest player’s ‘preferred choice’ of next club is.

It doesn’t feel particularly seismic for a player to pick Manchester City and probably playing under Pep Guardiola for a bit while regularly winning trophies over Manchester United and maybe working with Michael Carrick .

One more detail does stand out from this Cross exclusive: the price. Is £65m not a little low for a player touted in most circles at closer to £100m ?

It is said that ‘City are keen to get the deal over the line at the start of the summer, before Anderson heads to the World Cup North America with England. This would avoid the risk of Anderson’s valuation increasing, should he have a successful tournament.’

Considering Cross himself wrote in October that ‘Manchester City are plotting a £75m raid on Nottingham Forest for rising star Elliot Anderson’ in a transfer ‘battle’ with Chelsea (weird that they are not ‘snubbed’ in the headline here but Manchester United are), and that he described the Forest midfielder as ‘the £75m-rated ace’ at the centre of a Manchester ‘bidding war’ less than six weeks ago, those Etihad chiefs shouldn’t worry – wait another week or so and his valuation will come down below £50m.

Manchester United will recover from the blow of losing Anderson regardless, for they ‘could have Casemiro replacement for free in transfer masterstroke’.

That is a perfectly sensible reaction to Toby Collyer’s full debut for loan club Hull City, a 74-minute performance worthy of an 8.5/10 from the Hull Daily Mail in their player ratings.

It doesn’t at all feel as though the Manchester Evening News have allowed themselves to get hilariously carried away there about the prospects of a 22-year-old making his seventh professional start, who was the subject of a ‘brutal’ ‘attack’ by Ruben Amorim mere months ago .

He should definitely go from competing for second-tier minutes with John Lundstram to replacing a five-time Champions League winner.

Alas, it is a pretence even author Aaron Morris quickly abandons:

‘Despite already having Collyer at the club and the youngster seemingly thriving at Championship level, it remains highly unlikely that United will choose to utilise him as a replacement for Casemiro any time soon.’

You don’t say.

‘That’s despite not having to pay a penny for the talent’s services considering he is already on the Reds’ books.’

Sir Jim Ratcliffe does love saving money but he isn’t mental. Not always, anyway.

‘Collyer only signed his first professional contract at Old Trafford in 2024, and is still incredibly early into his footballing career. He has also only made six Premier League appearances for United thus far, and could require more experience at the highest levels before he is rolled out – especially considering the boots he would be filling.’

You might be onto something there. Maybe Collyer can be discussed as Casemiro’s replacement in ‘transfer masterstroke’ when he has played more than 824 minutes of competitive first-team football.

‘Can Tuchel continue to ignore such a potent attacking threat, even off the bench?’ the Daily Mail ‘s Chris Wheeler writes of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Tuchel has called Alexander-Arnold up once in over a year, and even then only gave him 26 minutes of a game against Andorra as a substitute for starting right-back Curtis Jones.

Alexander-Arnold did not make last month’s 35-man England squad, and when Jarell Quansah withdrew, Tuchel called up Benjamin White to make his first international appearances in four years instead.

‘Can Tuchel continues to ignore such a potent attacking threat, even off the bench?’. Well he has so far so it certainly seems feasible.