Mbeumo rocked as 'secret' £100m Manchester United mission leaked

Bryan Mbeumo has been working on a ‘secret’ Manchester United mission for ages but it’s public knowledge now, while Liverpool are always transfer geniuses.

Life of Bryan

Our thoughts are with Bryan Mbeumo at this difficult time because…

‘BRYAN MBEUMO is quietly trying to convince Carlos Baleba to join him at Manchester United.’

Well he’ll be f***ing furious that his clandestine efforts have become an exclusive in The Sun. Their circulation might be down but still not sure that qualifies as doing something ‘quietly’ when it’s all over a newspaper.

And it’s a bit of a daft premise anyway, isn’t it? It’s widely understood that Baleba wants the move. That much has been known for months and his form this season is thought to have suffered in part because it didn’t go through.

It’s not Baleba who Mbeumo needs to ‘convince’, quietly or otherwise. That would be a massive waste of time.

As Brighton chairman Tony Bloom said recently: “There was interest from Manchester United, and we said that he wasn’t available this summer and they went away.”

So sure, Mbeumo and Baleba probably ‘have become closer while on international duty’ with Cameroon, and the former likely ‘has been sharing the delights of joining a mammoth club’ who are an entire two places and one point above Brighton in the Premier League table, having finished seven places behind them last season.

But it won’t matter a jot until and unless Manchester United meet a valuation Brighton have quite selfishly set. That will take some convincing from Mbeumo or indeed anyone.

I’ll keep you my dirty little secret

Of course, where one leads, others absolutely must follow. They have basically no choice – and we speak from a position of experience.

‘Bryan Mbeumo ‘takes’ Carlos Baleba transfer action as Manchester United star gets to work’ is from the Manchester Evening News.

The ‘action’ was basically just to talk to his friend about their jobs. And ‘takes’ being in headline quote marks despite not being used anywhere else in the story is wonderful.

‘Man Utd secret weapon takes action in £100m Carlos Baleba transfer chase’ is the Daily Mirror website‘s effort. And again, if Mbeumo is trying to be ‘secret’ about all of this it really hasn’t gone particularly well.

It will be lovely to have football back for a bit.

Bobby trap

Mediawatch is aware of the latent media desire to paint most things Liverpool do in the transfer market as a masterstroke of sorts. It is a right the club has earned over years of nailing some big decisions to great success.

But that often leads to erroneous pats on the back for the laptop gurus, such as this from the Daily Mirror:

‘Liverpool set for January transfer boost as Arne Slot decision quickly pays off’

That is certainly one way of reporting that Liverpool will get about £1m from Leipzig selling Bobby Clark to Celtic in January. Don’t spend it all at once, Arne.

Slot machine

‘Almost from day one, Slot – when not in the technical area – has been super-cool’ – Andy Dunn, Daily Mirror.

Not 100 per cent sure Michael Oliver agrees.

Pushing down on me, pushing down on you

It’s really quite weird of The Sun to pretend that there is extra ‘pressure’ and ‘added motivation’ for Arsenal to win the Premier League title this season because of the looming World Cup.

Sure, loads of Arsenal players will be picked for the tournament with ‘plans disrupted like never before, severely impacting preparations for the 2026/27 campaign’.

But is Jordan Davies under the impression that Arsenal will be the only club affected by international call-ups for a 48-team major tournament? Does he think Liverpool and Manchester City won’t have most of their players chosen too?

The final countdown

‘Rafa Benitez on brink of sensational return to management with former Champions League finalists on £11m deal’ – The Sun headline.

‘RAFA BENITEZ is close to signing with Greek giants Panathinaikos in a stunning move’ – The Sun’s first paragraph.

‘The ex-Newcastle manager will be joining a club with immense European pedigree as Panathinaikos made it to the final of the 1971 European Cup where they lost 2-0 to Ajax at Wembley’ – The Sun’s eighth paragraph.

Congratulations to Preston on becoming inaugural Premier League champions 136 years ago.

Ask a simple question

‘Aston Villa players will take the knee at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday as part of the Premier League’s “No room for racism” campaign to tackle discrimination. Spurs have a proportion of their support drawn from the Jewish community and the Star of David is seen at games. So, following the controversial decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Villa Park, will West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council now ban Spurs fans from travelling to Villa Park on May 2 because of the club’s Jewish connections?’- Henry Winter.

…no?

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