Both transfer goats Fabrizio Romano and David Ornstein in the last hour have come out and confirmed this surprising news that United and Villa have agreed on terms to sign Youri Tielemans.
Fabrizio says that "United activate €41m release clause into Tielemans’ contract at Aston Villa, verbal agreement also with Belgian midfielder."
He also added that "Manchester United book a medical for Youri Tielemans this week ahead of transfer for €41m release clause activated today.Andrey Santos already signed + Tielemans next."
Ornstein was the first who I saw broke it. "Manchester United in advanced talks to sign Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa. All parties in contact as #MUFC try to finalise - 29yo midfielder keen on move."
Wow! 🤯
Where did this come from?!
Tielemans was not a name that was on most people's radars when it came to potential midfielders for United this summer.
In fact, when looking at the reports from the start of the window, his name was NEVER mentioned.
Yet here we are with a 'here we go'.
Such a quick deal after such a quick deal for Santos who just fyi, should be announced either today or later in the week. Unlike Ederson, there was no complications with his transfer or that of new backup GK Karl Darlow.
My initial thoughts are still a bit stunned.
But when it comes to this deal for this player, I actually don't mind it.
I've given the club a lot of stick when it comes to transfers but this is one of those times where I do have to credit them because for £35m (for his release clause at least), a heavily expereinced player both in the Premier League and for his country, I think that's a pretty good deal.
What makes this better is that we were looking to sign a twice-relegated West Ham prospect for £80m. Now, we've gone and signed two players for that same price. I also think that Andrey Santos is better than Mateus Fernandes with Tielemans being better than both.
Two for the price of one.
And both players are better than that one as well.
However, I don't want to be blowing smoke up the arse of United because while I do think that this has worked out for them perfectly, I don't think that this was the plan.
We know that Fernandes, Sandro Tonali, Elliot Anderson, Aurelien Tchouameni and Ederson were all players that were wanted by United. I think they believed that at some point, they'll sign some of them. Nobody saw what Spurs were going to do with Tonali and Fernandes and for City to break the British transfer record for Anderson, that was never something United were going to do anyway.
But even then, Tielemans was not a name mentioned as a possible alternative.
So why now?
I think it's the same as Santos: desperation.
As he wasn't a name we thought of at any point until very recently, how quickly it was done, and the fact that Tielemans is 29-years-old which is three years older than the requirement of the maximum age of a new signing being 26, that tells me that United were sort of desperate.
As Ederson looks unlikely as well, I feel as if that was another angle for the club to try and do something.
The good thing for them is that Tielemans actually makes us all feel a little more excited as few actually wanted Ederson. I believe he's better in every way and is closer to what we need.
The club needed to bring in someone because for a while, it felt like Ederson was going to happen. Whether we were happy with the player or not, at least we knew one deal was done.
Now that it isn't and with there being a bit division with Santos, someone like Tielemans can get fans a little more onside as he is a good player.
I guess what I'm trying to say here and for some reason am finding it difficult to do so, in United's desperation, we ended up doing better deals and ended up with better players.
This is why I've mentioned several times over on TikTok that United will still have a great window.
As this stands, this isn't a great window but it's appearing a little better than it could have been a week ago.
Tielemans and Santos sounds a lot better than Ederson and Santos.
And with this Tielmans signing, I feel we've now ticked the two tiers of midfielders we needed: tier 3, solid rotational option that keeps the level relatively high (Santos). Tier 2, very good no 8 who can challenge or start ahead of Mainoo. If he has PL experience, great. If not, as long as he provides healthy competition, then that is what we were looking for. This is where Tielemans comes in.
All we need now is that marquee, no 6, Casemiro replacement and suddenly, this isn't looking like a bad window.
When you think about it, it's starting to look more like exactly what we needed, even if the players signed were not the primary targets.
But, and there is a bit of a concerning but when it comes to our new Belgian 👇
It's not exactly pristine, is it? It leans more towards Mason Mount than to Bruno Fernandes.
It's not as bad as Mount's. Yet it is not ideal either.
For him to have picked up his two worst injuries of his career in one season which was last season, is not what I want to see with a new signing.
That is over 100 days and 20 games missed for club and country. To think that we could be without a player for prolonged periods in a season where there's more football and in such a key position, is a problem.
Look at what happened with Mount.
The difference at least is that, Tielemans isn't as expensive and regardless of what happens, I don't think it will ever be considered a flop deal.
So all-in-all, I like this. It's not what we all had in mind but nor is it the worst.
£35m for a PL-proven, solid midfielder is something that I think everyone would've taken at the start of the window.
What makes it better is that Ornstein said that "#AVFC had no wish to sell." Nice to know that we took an important player from them 🤣.
Yes you can say that it's cheap, desperate and that the player wanted to join us, but it's no denying that it is a good deal.
Welcome to Manchester United Football Club, Youri Tielemans 🤝.
Youri Tielemans joins Man Utd from Aston Villa for £35m | Photo by MB Media/Getty Images via United In Focus