Amorim given Man Utd reality check as €45m deal confirmed

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim will have been left frustrated to see Geovany Quenda sign for Chelsea.

Amorim had made Quenda a major target for the Red Devils and the fact that they missed out on Sporting CP’s 17-year-old speaks volumes as to where they are going into the summer transfer market.

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Numerous sources have confirmed Chelsea were able to win the race for the teenage winger, who was handed his debut earlier this season by the Man Utd boss, as they matched the Lisbon club’s €45 million transfer demand.

United had launched a bid, but at €40m it was insufficient, despite the player being keen on reuniting with Amorim. They have, therefore, missed out on one of Europe’s breakout stars for the sake of just €5m.

While fans might point to Chelsea gazumping Arsenal to sign Mykhailo Mudryk in a similar scenario as a signal that this may not be a bad thing, this situation is different. For one, the Blues’ transfer business has become more refined and secondly, Quenda is a player that Amorim knows intimately and respects greatly.

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“Amorim likes to have wing-backs playing as inverted wing-backs,” Duncan Castles told The Transfers Podcast. “You have the left-footed player on the right and the right-footed player on the left.

“If he can get Quenda in, that would give him the ability to play both sides of his 3-4-3 system.

“In his idea, you have a player on the wing who can not only go directly up the flanks, but when he’s passing will pass into the attacking spaces that are being created by the two number 10s.”

Make no mistake: Amorim has seen a big summer transfer escape him.

What does this say about United?

Man Utd’s position going into the summer is no secret. Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) mean that they will need to sell before they buy, which is something even Amorim has admitted.

Missing out on Quenda for a relatively paltry sum drives that fact home. Without the guaranteed income to cover the deal, United could not stretch to just €5m more to sign a player their manager was set on.

It’s not like the price is outrageous, either. Quenda has an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €39.5m, so while Chelsea are paying over the odds, they are not doing so dramatically. Indeed, given the teenager’s rapid explosion, it would almost be surprising if he were not worth more than this figure by the time he moves to Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2026.

For Amorim and Man Utd, it’s back to the drawing board, all too aware of just how delicate the situation is ahead of the summer transfer window.