Man Utd legend completely ‘baffled’ by £50m summer signing with ‘jury still out’ | OneFootball

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Ince claims the ‘jury’s still out’ on £50million summer  signing Andrey Santos and that he is ‘baffled’ by the club’s move for the former Chelsea man.

While United prioritised overhauling their forward line last summer, with the additions of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko, it’s the midfield that has been the main focus this time around.

Man Utd did express strong interest in the likes of Elliot Anderson, Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali, while also backing away from their proposed deal for Atalanta’s Ederson.

In the end, they splashed out £50m on Santos and a further £35m on Youri Tielemans, but it’s fair to say that Ince is not convinced about the business for the former.

The former United and England star told Oddschecker: “I think when you look at what Manchester United are trying to do, they obviously need to strengthen in that area.

“Whether [Manuel] Ugarte comes back, I don’t know, but they’ve signed the lad Santos from Chelsea for £50m, which is a lot of money for someone like him. I think the jury’s still out on that one.

“So to spend £50m on a young central midfield player when you’ve got [Kobbie] Mainoo coming through the ranks, kind of baffled me a bit.

“Obviously Tielemans I think is a fantastic player. More of a Fernandes type of player, but a very good player. I still think they’re trying to do the Ederson deal from Atalanta.

“So, they’ve got a whole load of midfield players in that position which needed to be strengthened.

“I think he’s [Mainoo] the man who can play that role. I believe that, he’s got a really good head on his shoulders. He’s young, he’s got legs, he can keep hold of the ball.”

Ince wants more Mainoo at Man Utd

While Ince admits to being intrigued by how Michael Carrick opts to set up his midfield this coming season, he hopes that Kobbie Mainoo can build on a strong finish to the 2025/26 campaign, after continually being snubbed by England boss Thomas Tuchel at the World Cup.

He added: “I like Tielemans, I think Tielemans is more of a [Bruno] Fernandes type of player. I like Casemiro, I think Casemiro was brilliant. And the fact that United are in the Champions League, they need to start building a stronger squad.

“I always thought when Mainoo, when I watched him, he kind of did things easy, got it, passed it. When you play that role, and I’ve played that role for 20 years you’ve got to do more than that.

‘You’ve got to get forward, get into the box, and take shots, he never, never really did that.

“He just did the simple things. Towards the back end of the season, he started to tackle, win balls, set things up, get himself in the box, make things happen. And he looks a completely different player.

“So if he can repeat that form this season, then, you know, I think it’d be great for United. But they’ve got plenty of options in there. So it’ll be interesting to see which way Carrick goes.”