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8 players Man Utd must sell this summer

Manchester United are set to go under a big rebuilding plan over the next year or two as we look to challenge for the Premier League title for the first time since 2013.

Sunday’s 1-1 draw at home to Chelsea leaves us in a very difficult position to qualify for next season’s Champions League; three points behind the Blues with only two games to play, and with Arsenal also in between us and the top four.

Several players have been a huge disappointment for us this season, under both Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, as we have significantly underperformed domestically.

With a huge wage bill and the need to raise funds before the manager is giving a significant sum to spend over the summer, here are eight players we could really do with moving on at the end of the season:

Paul Pogba

Aside from an excellent two-month spell when Ole first took charge of the club, Paul Pogba has been a huge letdown during his time at Manchester United. The 2018 World Cup winner has a bad attitude problem and it shows on the pitch. Whilst Pogba is capable of producing the sublime he simply rarely shows it.

The 26-year-old has been linked to some of Europe’s biggest clubs in the past so there’s no doubt we’d receive interest and a good fee if we wanted to move Pogba on this summer.

Alexis Sanchez

We fought off competition from Manchester City to land Alexis Sanchez in a swap deal for Henrikh Mkhitaryan in January 2018. The 30-year-old has been nothing short of disappointing during his time at Old Trafford. Sunday’s substitute appearance was a perfect example as he barely touched the ball in the final third.

Unfortunately, the Chilean’s huge wage is going to make it very difficult for us to move him on, even though he has proved himself to be a star in the past at both Barcelona and Arsenal.

Chris Smalling

Our central defence has been an achilles heel to us over the past few seasons, backed up by the fact we’ve already conceded more Premier League goals this season than any previous and we still have two games to play. Chris Smalling is only a regular in the team this season due to our failure to land any of Jose’s centre-back targets last summer.

Let us pray we sign at least one central defender this summer so that we can move Smalling on. The former-Fulham man has been linked to other Premier League clubs in the past so we shouldn’t have a problem getting a reasonable fee for him.

Marcos Rojo

There are too many dud centre-backs at this club right now and Marcos Rojo is another prime example of them. The Argentine is a liability and neither Mourinho nor Solskjaer has shown any faith in him this term.

Simply getting him off our wage bill and potential teamsheet would be a boost for us heading into the 2019-2020 Premier League season.

Fred

Another one of Jose’s disastrous signings, Fred has looked well out of place in England and is headed to the top of the list of worst-ever Premier League signings. Somehow this midfielder is a Brazilian international. We’re not sure how.

We fought off competition from Manchester City once again to land the 26-year-old this past summer but it’s a signing we now wish Pep Guardiola had have made instead. Given his age we should be able to move him on and get back some of the £52 million we paid for him.

Ashley Young

When Ashley Young has been a regular in defence for the past two seasons you know something’s not right. The 33-year-old currently captains the side too. Switching from left-back to right this term he only makes us nervous when top Premier League wingers go up against him. He’s not a defender – he was a winger when we brought him to the club.

Unfortunately, even when Young does bomb forward his deliveries have been woeful in both open play and set pieces over the past couple of years. We already have a replacement in Diogo Dalot so it’s about time the Portuguese youngster gets his chance.

Nemanja Matic

The holding midfielder looks a shadow of the player who first joined Manchester United and previously won the Premier League title with Chelsea. Nemanja Matic will be 31 before the start of next season and already looks too slow in the middle of the pitch.

It’s time we moved the Serbian on from the club and brought in an energetic holding midfielder like many of our rivals do – Manchester City with Fernandinho, Fabinho at Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur with Victor Wanyama, N’Golo Kante at Chelsea and Lucas Torreira at Arsenal.

Matteo Darmian

The Italian full-back has been strongly linked with a move away from Manchester United over the past couple of transfer windows, particularly to Serie A champions Juventus. However, Matteo Darmian remains at Old Trafford.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has had some use out of the 29-year-old, but apart from starting in a back three against Chelsea on Sunday, he’s only really ever started when we’ve had a large list of defensive injuries.