by It’s an outside chance that Victor Lindelof will be on the books when he celebrates his eighth year at Manchester United this June. It’s unlikely to be marked by any of their social media accounts.
Lindelof has barely trained since returning for pre-season and played just two halves during the tour of the United States. With Friday’s deadline day, United are almost certain to be saddled with an injury-prone 30-year-old who they could offload in June.
United are understood to have extended Lindelof’s contract until 2025 in December. Lindelof was out injured at the time and would miss 21 of United’s 52 games last term.
The development was accepted, days after Sir Jim Ratcliffe agreed his minority stake, to protect Lindelof’s resale value. Instead, Lindelof’s value has gone in a different direction.
He is almost as rarely available as Luke Shaw and is arguably United’s sixth choice center back if they are all available at the same time. Few at the club are surprised that Lindelof could provide cover at left-back, as if to give the Swede a purpose.
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United have negotiated more than £100million from sales this summer (including add-ons), a huge change from the old regime which decided to attach marketable players to new contracts.
They didn’t always come in. United have started one-year options for Antonio Valencia, James Wilson, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, Sergio Romero, Joel Pereira, Phil Jones, David de Gea, Brandon Williams, Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial.
None had any resale value. Lindelof did at the start of the summer but his “niggle” and “precautionary” substitution took place against Liverpool in South Carolina before injuring a toe which prevented him from kicking a ball for nearly four weeks. He was not featured in this week’s training images and footage.
United could not have foreseen Lindelof’s poor fitness but his continued presence warrants discussion of a potentially ruthless approach to extensions. Harry Maguire can’t be sure his contract will be extended until 2026.
Amad, 22, who is now a central member of the squad, can, if he is not tied down on fresh terms. Amad and 19-year-old Kobbie Mainoo are likely to have new contracts after the transfer window closes.
The first transfer window of the Ed Woodward era had only just closed in 2013 when United negotiated an inexplicable and irresponsible five-year renewal with Nani. He played a further 13 times for the club and was sold to Fenerbahce for £4.3 million in 2015.
United was the club where anything could go wrong. Nani should be the nadir of new signings but United have lowered the bar with Marcos Rojo in 2018 and Phil Jones in 2019.
Rojo played 17 games in three years after agreeing improved terms in March 2018. United tried to sell him in four of his five summers at the club. He was injured during the one they didn’t.
After a four-and-a-half-year contract was agreed when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was caretaker manager in February 2019, Jones appeared in 21 United games over four-and-a-half years. News of his contract was the last time Carrington issued a press release, a piece of history unlikely to ever be seen in the Old Trafford museum.
Lindelof has been a better defender for United than Rojo and Jones but due to the circumstances of his contract in September 2019 he may be the worst United have ended up with. His agent, Hasan Cetinkaya, publicly claimed Lindelof was Barcelona’s target after Matthijs de Ligt opted to move to Juventus. Two months later, Lindelof and Cetinkaya were hand in hand in the Carrington press room, celebrating a salary increase.
At the time, Lindelof was not halfway through what was actually a five-year deal. In fact, he claimed his agent for telling Deportivo El Mundo, Catalan newspaper, a “big club” was touched by a medal at a press conference in Perth the pre-season.
Barcelona’s ‘vice’ was absolutely incredible. Only Matt Judge, who was in charge of negotiating United’s player contacts, believed him. What really worried you was that United had gathered credible information about Barcelona’s financial predicament.
Lindelof may have been United’s standout player in the 2018-19 season, one of the few to perform during Jose Mourinho’s final months. The flip side is that United had a one-year option to tie Lindelof to the club until 2022 and that should see Cetinkaya through the fog.
Lindelof had been playing and performing consistently for five, maybe six months. He was also prominent in United’s worst defensive top-flight season in 40 years when they conceded 54 goals in 38 games.
Yesterday, earned eight years of service at United. Martial was a year shy of being eligible for certification and recent proof that is no longer the case. He was still serenaded at his farewell at Old Trafford (while injured).
Lindelof is a more dedicated and dedicated professional at United but his £120,000-a-week wages cost the club £6.24m until he is released next year. It is a measure of Lindelof’s standing that he never got to sing on the platforms, just a moniker from the club’s social media team.
And even they are unlikely to remember its anniversary.
