Alvarez and Manchester United transfer developments

I’ve been following this story which was discussed by Gonzo in Thursday’s C and H, and updated by Simon today. Quite apart from the hole it would leave in our midfield, Alvarez is the kind of no nonsense, committed player who we need  to see more of if we are to reduce our dreadful goal leakage going into 2024/5.  So the prospect of him being the subject of a bid from Manchester United certainly caught my attention.

Apparently the Red Devils had more or less decided that they needed an upgrade on their Brazilian midfielder Casemiro who had faded last season. Initially, he’d  looked an excellent performer and quickly landed an upgraded five year deal and £350,000 a week.  This last season, however, he’d been well off the pace and it looked as if the years had caught up with him, hence Erik ten Hag’s desire to search for an upgrade. It seemed that Casemiro had read the writing on the wall and was planning a move for one last payday in Saudi Arabia.

Our Mexican ‘Machin’ apparently was apparently going to be the target for Ten Hag  as their preferred replacement: Who can blame Manchester United for identifying Alvarez: His attitude has been almost as impressive as his gritty, determined on-field performances ( just don’t mention the yellow cards).

However  in the last few hours it seems there have been interesting developments which put a different complexion on this. On his X (twitter) page, Sport 1 journalist Christopher Michel (@Cmoffizell) told his 23,000 followers that ‘Casemiro’s transfer to Saudi had fallen through a few days ago – hence Edson Alvarez from West Ham is currently not a hot topic’.

Whether or not that was in response to West Ham’s declaration that Alvarez was not for sale – see Simon’s earlier post- let’s hope that is one transfer which ‘stays fallen through’ so that our Mexican midfielder remains at London Stadium collecting yellow cards and suspensions for us for several seasons to come!