Manchester United have two days, a striker to sell and no left-back

The Premier League window shuts at 11pm on Tuesday, and Manchester United’s list of unfinished business has barely shortened this week. A striker they no longer want is still on the books. A left-back they have chased all summer is still not signed. In between, they have agreed to sell a 22-year-old midfielder for roughly what a Championship club pays for a squad player.

Fiorentina have moved first for Zirkzee

The offer on the table for Joshua Zirkzee is a loan with an option to buy. Fiorentina would pay a loan fee of around 5 million euros, cover the striker’s wages for the season, and hold an option to sign him permanently for a further 25 million. Talks are still running on the detail, and Fiorentina have been speaking to the player’s camp as well as to United.

Nothing is signed. Juventus have circled the same player all month, but they need to move Jonathan David on before they can fund anything, and that delay is what has let Fiorentina in front.

Zirkzee cost United 42.5 million euros from Bologna in 2024, slightly more than his release clause in return for softer payment terms. Selling at a loss two years later was never the plan, which is precisely why a loan with an option looks like the compromise everyone can live with. It clears the wages, it gets the player minutes, and it pushes the argument about what he is actually worth into next summer.

The left-back search has run out of road

United went into the summer wanting a left-back. They are two days from the deadline without one.

Lewis Hall was the first choice and the answer has not changed since early August, when Newcastle rejected an enquiry and told United he was not for sale. Their manager Matthias Jaissle put it more bluntly a week ago, saying United had no chance. Hall is 21, has three years to run on his contract, and is exactly the profile Newcastle are building around.

Alejandro Balde was the next name. United made contact with the agent Jorge Mendes about a week ago to find out what a deal would look like, and the answer came back the same on both fronts: the fee is too high and so is the salary. Balde wants to stay at Barcelona and fight for his place.

What is left is the kind of signing clubs make when the clock has beaten them. Joaquin Seys at Club Brugge has been on the list. David Raum and Jorge Salinas have both been mentioned. Fabrizio Romano’s reading is that United end up with a short-term stopgap rather than the long-term upgrade the recruitment department drew up in June.

Collyer leaves with a clause attached

Toby Collyer is going to West Bromwich Albion, the club he spent the first half of last season with on loan before United recalled him in January. The permanent deal starts at £3 million and could reach £7.6 million with add-ons, and United have kept a 40 per cent sell-on clause. Some of those add-ons depend on West Brom reaching the Premier League and on Collyer being capped by England, so the headline figure and the money United eventually bank may end up a long way apart.

He had other options. Hull wanted to take him back to the Premier League and Middlesbrough made an offer. He chose the club where he is likeliest to play every week.

James Overy is also on his way out. The 18-year-old right-back joins Sydney FC on a three-year deal with no fee changing hands, though United have written in a buy-back, matching rights and a sell-on, which is the modern way of losing a teenager without quite letting go of him.

The table is not helping

All of this is happening while Michael Carrick’s side look for a first win. United lost 2-0 at Hull on the opening weekend, a game the newly promoted side won with 28 per cent of the ball, and Ipswich arrive at Old Trafford at 9pm India time on Sunday having beaten Sunderland 2-1 in their own opener.

Carlos Baleba, the one big arrival, is not available either. He picked up an ankle problem in pre-season and Carrick has said he is unlikely to be back before the September international break.

A deadline is a bad place to do good business. United have spent this window signing a midfielder who cannot play yet and failing to shift the players they wanted off the wage bill. Whatever happens by 11pm on Tuesday, the position they identified first looks likely to be filled last, and by whoever is still available.

Keep up with every move before the window shuts