Manchester United made an attempt to sign Bayern Munich defender Jerome Boateng on loan, the BBC‘s Simon Stone has confirmed.
The club failed in its pursuit of Toby Alderweireld and Harry Maguire during a frustrating transfer window in which their only big signing was Fred, who arrived from Shakhtar Donetsk for £52.7m.
Reports from Germany of a late bid for Boateng conveniently emerged soon after Man United had played Bayern in a pre-season friendly. No deal was ever struck with the Bundesliga champions.
And according to Stone, United made enquiries over a potential loan deal for Boateng due to his injury record but the defender refused.
The Jerome Boateng comments re not joining Man Utd are interesting. Loan was proposed due to injury record. He said no.
— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) September 12, 2018
The latter stages of the transfer window for United were desperate, like an old lady still in a Vegas casino at 5am, desperately inserting 20 cent pieces into the void.
Yerry Mina and Diego Godin were also subject to late bids from United once it became clear that any deal for Alderweireld, the number one target for Mourinho, was completely off the table.
It was a considerable failure, and United have already suffered this season because of it, but missing out on an ageing and injury prone Boateng was probably a blessing in disguise.
