After Bayern Munich midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger agreed to join Manchester United for £14 million, the question now is what happens to Southampton defensive midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, with the general consensus being that Manchester United no longer needs the French international now that they have the big German.
This means that Arsenal can now sign the 25-year-old without fear of getting into a bidding war with United.
The Red Devils already had a £20 million offer turned down by Southampton, so it is unlikely that Arsene Wenger would be able to pick up Schneiderlin on the cheap given the fact the Saints are in a very good financial position following all the sales they made the previous summer.
Talking about Schneiderlin’s situation yesterday Southampton’s head of football development Les Reed yesterday admitted Schneiderlin could be sold.
He said: “It’s very difficult to know where his future lies because, yes, there’s interest, it’s been well documented that they made a bid that we turned down, and that to an extent is their declaration of interest.
“I’ve been bracing myself for the big offer that goes ‘Right, take it or leave it,’ and that hasn’t come.
“We’ve had declarations of interest from a couple, one’s made a bid, and you would expect from clubs of that status that, if they were deadly serious and deadly earnest to bring a player like Morgan Schneiderlin to their club, they would get it done, and that’s really what we’re waiting for, and then we’ll know.”
Right now the ball is in Arsenal’s court, and the Gunners have momentum after having just signed Petr Cech, and with the possibility of a world-class striker joining them soon, we here at ST think Wenger will be sorry if he does not take the opportunity and sign Schneiderlin this summer now matter how good Francis Coquelin was last season there is always the possibility of injury, and Wenger would be left without any cover.
Given Liverpool’s love of Southampton players you never know what could happen up at Anfield, especially if they manage to offload Raheem Sterling and have some lose cash hanging about.
There has also been talk of selling Brazilian defensive midfielder Lucas, and by signing the much younger Frenchman, manager Brendan Rodgers would truly be showing Liverpool’s intent of returning to the top-four.
