Man Utd receive bid for starlet from club with Champions League on offer
Manchester United have received an offer from Galatasaray to take Hannibal Mejbri on loan, according to reports in Turkey.
United signed Mejbri from Monaco in 2019, when he was still only 16 years old. After a couple of years progressing in their academy, he made his Premier League debut on the final day of the 2020-21 season. Now, the club must carefully analyse what the appropriate next step for his development would be.
Thanks to his impressive form at under-23 level, United tied Mejbri down to a contract until 2026 in March. But he might not spend all of those years at Old Trafford.
According to Fotomac in Turkey, Galatasaray have come forward with a loan offer for the midfielder. They are now eagerly awaiting United’s response.
Runners up in the Turkish Super Lig last season, Galatasaray can offer Mejbri Champions League football as long as they navigate the qualifying rounds.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been impressed with Mejbri’s progress, but would consider sending him out on loan. He knows that first-team opportunities will be relatively hard to come by at Old Trafford.
Whether he would get more playing time at Galatasaray, only the Turkish side know. But it could be an interesting avenue for him to go down until the time is right for him to make more of an impact in Manchester.
Mejbri contributed four goals and eight assists from 20 appearances in the 2020-21 edition of Premier League 2.
Now, senior football could beckon – but it may not be at United for now.
READ MORE: The Scout: Former Arsenal trialist poised to solve Man Utd midfield conundrum
Solskjaer to make attacker decision
Another youngster facing an uncertain short-term future at United is Facundo Pellistri, who joined in October 2020 and ended the campaign on loan with Alaves.
The right winger made 12 appearances in LaLiga and impressed Alaves sufficiently for them to want him back next season.
According to Noticias de Alava, the Spanish club are keen to re-sign the attacker on loan again.
Last month Calciomercato claimed Alaves officials had agreed to the loan extension, as long as they secured their top-flight status first. Alaves did that with two wins from their last three matches.
It is claimed that United are “planning to discuss” their pathway for Pellistri this week. Solskjaer must decide whether another loan spell will benefit the Montevideo-born forward, or whether he comes back into their Under-23 set-up or the first team.
The Spanish outlet report that “everything suggests” another loan spell is likely. They also suggest that Solskjaer appears to have broken his transfer promise over the player.
The claim is that Solskjaer promised Penarol chiefs that Pellistri would go “straight into the first team”.
We’ve entered the £1million FanTeam Euro 2020 Fantasy tournament. Head to fanteam.co/TEAMtalk to compete against us.
The post Man Utd receive bid for starlet from club with Champions League on offer appeared first on TEAMtalk.