Roma set their price for Manu Kone at 60 million euros as Manchester United open talks

Roma have put a number on Manu Kone and they are not moving off it. Sixty million euros, roughly 51 million pounds, is what it will take to prise the France midfielder out of the Stadio Olimpico this summer, and three Premier League clubs are now working out whether they want to pay it.

Manchester United have gone furthest, opening formal talks with Roma this week after earlier contact with the player’s representatives. Arsenal and Liverpool have both made enquiries. Atletico Madrid got there first and were sent away, their offer of around 40 million euros dismissed as nowhere near enough.

Why the price went up

Kone was a good player before the World Cup. He is a more expensive one after it. The 25-year-old was central to France reaching the semi-finals and finishing fourth, and a tournament watched by every recruitment department in Europe did what tournaments tend to do for a midfielder with his profile.

He is a carrier rather than a passer, the sort who takes the ball off his own defenders and drives thirty yards upfield before anyone can get near him. At 6ft 1in he also wins it back, which is the part that makes him expensive. Plenty of midfielders can do one or the other.

Italian reporting has Roma flatly refusing to negotiate downwards, with the club unwilling to let Kone’s valuation be dragged toward the level of recent midfield business elsewhere. Roma paid around 18 million euros for him in 2024. Sixty million, and not a euro less, is the line coming out of the Italian capital.

Three clubs, three different needs

United’s interest is the most advanced and, on the face of it, the least obvious. They have already signed Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans this summer, so the midfield is not bare. What Michael Carrick has been chasing is a specific type, someone who can carry the ball through the middle third, and that is exactly what Kone does.

Liverpool’s is the more intriguing one. Their scouts watched him closely in the World Cup, and a high-intensity side that presses and turns defence into attack quickly has fairly obvious uses for a midfielder built like this. Arsenal, meanwhile, have made contact without pushing it further so far.

None of the three had a formal offer on the table with Roma as of the start of this week, which means the Italian club is still holding the cards. That will not last indefinitely. Roma qualified for the Champions League but are working under real financial pressure, and a sale at anything close to their asking price would solve a lot of problems at once.

The likeliest outcome

Deals like this usually come down to who blinks. Roma have named a price they know is above what any of the three think he is worth, and they have the advantage of not needing to sell this week. The buying clubs have the advantage of time, since a player who wants the Premier League tends to get there eventually.

United being in formal talks matters more than Arsenal and Liverpool making enquiries, and if the fee lands nearer 50 million than 60 million it would be a surprise if Roma held firm all the way to September. Right now, though, nobody has actually bid. Everything else is positioning.

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