Exclusive: Fabrizio Romano responds to Manchester United transfer links with talented young duo

Transfer news expert Fabrizio Romano has responded to the recent Manchester United transfer rumours involving talented young duo Joao Neves and Joshua Zirkzee.

Neves has established himself as one of the finest young midfielders in world football at Benfica, while Zirkzee is having a superb season leading the line for Bologna in Serie A.

Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside for his latest Daily Briefing column, Romano explained that Man Utd are scouting these players, but there’s nothing more concrete than that going on for the moment as the club won’t be making advances on any transfer targets until they have a new sporting director in place.

The Red Devils are bound to undergo many changes in the months ahead after the purchase of a 25% stake in the club by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS, and that also means fans may have to be patient when it comes to new signings for next season.

Neves and Zirkzee both look like superb talents who could strengthen United, but it remains to be seen if they’ll definitely be at the top of their list, or if other clubs might be able to move for them first, with Romano also mentioning AC Milan’s concrete interest in Zirkzee.

“Joao Neves of Benfica is always linked because he’s being scouted but nothing concrete is taking place now. He’s a top talent and so links are not surprising, but there’s nothing else going on because we need to see what will be the United strategy under their new director,” Romano said.

“The same is true for Joshua Zirkzee – it’s just normal scouting activity, but too early to know what United will decide to do here. Also, AC Milan have a concrete interest in Zirkzee for sure but the strategy for the summer will be made in the next months, not now.”