Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has revealed just how close Manchester United were to signing forward Cody Gakpo.
It’s no secret that the Red Devils were keen on signing the PSV winger, with Football Insider claiming towards the end of August that a £25m bid was being prepared for the Dutch international.
And it seems as though personal terms were agreed between player and club, but the deal didn’t happen as United ended up signing Antony instead.
Indeed, revealing his information on YouTube, Romano explained what he knew of the situation, saying: “Cody Gakpo had an agreement on personal terms with Manchester United.
“So Cody Gakpo had this dream of Man United, it was agreed on personal terms because the player was ready to say yes to Man United – a five-year deal, everything was ready.
“But he was the backup option in case the Antony deal was not going through. And then Man United were able to sign Antony, so they’re more than happy like this.
“But Cody Gakpo is a player that has always been in Man United’s list, and they were prepared to bid in case the Antony deal was going to be off, but it never happened.
“So it was only a contact with the player’s side, he has the same agents of Erik ten Hag, so Man United was a fantastic opportunity for the player. So Man United signed Antony and nothing happened on that side.”
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TIF Thoughts on Cody Gakpo and Manchester United…
Indeed, Manchester United spent a reported £86m bringing in Antony from Ajax, so it’s no shock to hear that the club were unwilling to go back into the market for another winger.
Ironically, though, Gakpo spoke about his possible transfer in August and claimed that Antony’s transfer would have ‘no influence’ on his own deal.
In the end, though, it seems he was wrong as the Red Devils clearly favoured one man over the other. And with Antony scoring on debut against Arsenal, they may have made the right call.