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29th Dec 2016

Portuguese press convinced Lindelof WILL sign for Man United, despite BBC story

It looks like the £38m deal could be back on

Nooruddean Choudry

It’s LindelON again.

To recap this mini-transfer saga: Last week, the noises coming from Portugal were that Victor Lindelöf, Benfica’s 22-year-old central defender of some repute, was joining Manchester United in a matter of weeks. The deal was being treated as a formality, and there were even suggestions that squad numbers had already been discussed.

As for the player himself, he was happy to pose with a United fan in his native Sweden, and sign the famous red jersey…

@VictorLindelof signing my United shirt here in Sweden?

A photo posted by Manchester United Fan Page (@manutdtillidie) on

But fast forward to this week and the BBC were poo-poo’ing the transfer that everyone assumed was in the bag. They claimed with some authority that Jose Mourinho had decided not to follow up his interest in a player who would cost a whopping £38m.

According to the Beeb, the unlikely partnership of Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo had done such a sterling job of marshalling the United backline that Mourinho’s immediate urgency for defensive recruitments had calmed. It was very much a case of Victor LindelOFF.

But not to be bowed, the Portuguese press have now doubled down on their original reports, and claim that the BBC update is balderdash and piffle. A Bola in particular claim that the English story is merely a negotiation tactic by United to get Benfica to reduce the terms of the deal.

Either way, someones source is providing duff information. We’ll know who soon enough.