‘Despite the rumours’: Romano rebuffs claims that 28-cap int’l has turned down United interest

While West Ham United are indeed closing in on a deal to sign Manchester United target Noussair Mazraoui, the door may not be closed on a potential hijack just yet.

The major factor hindering United’s pursuit is that in order to sanction the fullback’s arrival, they must first offload Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who is garnering interest from a number of clubs.

Such interest is only valuable if it materialises, though, and as of yet, nothing has come to fruition regarding the defender’s potential sale.

Nevertheless, United’s links with Mazraoui came as no surprise to the Old Trafford faithful, as he is yet another Erik ten Hag-coached, ex-Ajax player. He moved from Amsterdam to join Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich in 2022 but has since featured sporadically and struggled to nail down a starting role under each manager.

Newly-appointed Vincent Kompany has now seemingly deemed the Moroccan international surplus to requirements. Bayern were initially demanding a fee of €30 million (£25m) when transfer listing the player, but after quickly realising no clubs would meet their valuation, lowered his price tag to around €20m £16.8m (per Florian Plettenberg).

Read more: United enter advanced talks over deal for ‘phenomenal’ young midfielder who is keen to make up for lost time

Transfer expert rebuffs recent Mazraoui reports

Fabrizio Romano has today provided an update regarding the latest developments in the chase for the 26-year-old, writing in his Daily Briefing: “Despite the rumours, I’m not aware of Noussair Mazraoui preferring a move to West Ham over Man United.

“Man United still have Wan-Bissaka, and they need him to leave first in order to bring in a new right-back.

“The situation whilst I’m writing is that West Ham can make a deal happen now as they have agreed terms with Bayern, but they’re still working on the player side.”