Manchester United finalised the capture of midfielder Carlos Baleba from Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday, with the transfer valued at up to £70million.
Wayne Rooney has offered his assessment of Baleba’s move to Old Trafford.
The former United captain thinks Baleba will enhance Manchester United’s capabilities while also establishing a battle for starting positions. The club announced Baleba’s arrival in a transaction worth up to £70million from Brighton on Tuesday.
Baleba becomes the third Premier League midfielder to reinforce the club’s engine room, putting pen to paper on a five-year contract with the option of a further 12 months. During an appearance on the Stick to United with Wayne Rooney podcast, the ex-United skipper expressed his approval of the acquisition.
He stated the team required another central midfielder offering some physical presence, acknowledging that while Baleba is not particularly tall, he covers significant ground, shows aggression, and takes ownership of the ball, which addresses a team need. He described Baleba as an excellent performer who will substantially elevate the side.
With Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Kobbie Mainoo also in the squad, Rooney anticipated healthy rivalry for spots, noting this is precisely how it should be and that underperformance would result in losing playing time.
Rooney’s remarks follow just a week after he maintained that United needed to introduce more physicality to their midfield during the summer. The former England international was explicit that he considered his former club required additional height in the centre of the pitch, a quite different profile to what Baleba represents.
He noted that Tielemans, Mainoo and Santos are all relatively slight players lacking considerable speed, suggesting United should pursue someone similar in build to Amadou Onana at Aston Villa, or at least that type of profile, which he believed the club required in the middle of the park.
United director of football Jason Wilcox explained the reasoning behind the acquisition, stating that Carlos represents an exceptional midfielder with tremendous scope for further growth. He brings distinctive attributes that will mesh well with the existing group. The club is pleased to reinforce their midfield with another experienced international who has demonstrated Premier League quality. Carlos’s eagerness to join Manchester United and his conviction that shared objectives will be attained make him an ideal acquisition as the club builds an energetic and entertaining side prepared to challenge on all fronts.