There are plenty of Manchester United players with less than a year remaining on their current deals but supporters shouldn’t panic.
In an attempt to avoid the situation that Arsenal currently face with Alexis Sanchez, who can leave the Emirates for free next summer unless a club decides to bid for him in January, United included a clause in six players’ contracts which allows them to trigger a year extension.
On Friday, manager Jose Mourinho identified those six players – namely Ashley Young, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera, Luke Shaw, Daley Blind and Sam Johnstone.
Manchester Evening News report that the above names will prolong their stay at Old Trafford and, therefore, fans need not worry about the club encountering an Arsenal/Alexis Sanchez situation.
Three other players have less than a year remaining on their United contracts but don’t have the added year clause.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini are in danger of letting their deals run up but Mourinho has insisted that he will sit down with Ibrahimovic and Carrick once the current season ends to see if they would like to continue playing.
Interestingly, Mourinho did not make reference to Fellaini during the conversation about player contracts.
“Of course it makes a difference,” Mourinho said of the additional year clause. “When the club has a one-year option it means they have one more year of contract so nobody is in the last year.
“The only players, two players are Zlatan and Carrick. Two players at the end of the season who are going to sit, analyse what they did and what they want to do.
“All the other players are under the club control until end of the 2018-19 season. We are speaking about June [20]19. No player ends his contract.”
