The Alphonso Davies transfer saga continues as Manchester United, who were only recently linked to the player, have seemingly pulled out of the race to sign the Bayern Munich left-back.
Davies’ contract at Bayern Munich is set to expire during the summer of 2025, and for the past year, it has been largely expected that Real Madrid will swoop in and sign the player on a free. However, the start of the Vincent Kompany era at Bayern threw a twist into this narrative. As Davies regained form under his new manager murmurs of a possible extension in Munich started to surface. Not long after these rumors came speculation that Manchester United was also interested in signing the player if he were to become available in the summer.
If all were to go to plan for the English club Davies would join the growing force of former Bayern players at United and slot into a backline containing former teammates Matthijs de Light and Noussair Mazraoui. Under new manager Rubén Amorim, it’s possible that Davies would’ve found success in this setup, except a new report from The Athletic (via @iMiaSanMia) suggests that fans will never get to find out.
Davies’ wage demands, a contentious issue in contract negotiations with Bayern, are reportedly too high for United and would make a potential deal incredibly difficult to navigate.
Phonzy’s salary demands aside, why would he ever choose to move to Manchester United? When presented with the option of joining the most successful football club of all time, continuing with a consistent top-five team where you are excelling, or joining a team with Joshua Zirkzee and barely more points than Everton why on earth would Davies strap himself in for mid-table mediocrity? This is a deal that would not make any sense whatsoever.
Yes, Manchester United are a historically successful club but they haven’t found meaningful success in years. This is a dysfunctional mess of a club far past its prime and the fact that they’re getting linked to one of the best players in their position speaks volumes to the status that the Premier League has acquired. Would you see St. Pauli (who like United, is 14th in its domestic table at the time of writing) pushing to sign Mo Salah when his contract is up? Of course not, because St. Pauli understands that there is a difference in levels here.
The Premier League’s status has afforded Manchester United the arrogance to think it is on the same footing as Bayern Munich. It is not. The draw of the Premier League might be enough to make up for the competitive gap a team like Bologna has over United, but not Bayern Munich.
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