Baleba debut pushed to October as United rule out free-agent left-back signing

Carlos Baleba will almost certainly have to wait until October for his Manchester United debut, with the £70 million signing from Brighton yet to return to training at Carrington after joining the club while still recovering from an ankle ligament injury.

The 22-year-old Cameroonian midfielder has been a visible presence at Old Trafford, attending matches against Ipswich Town and Sabah, but he has not yet taken part in first-team sessions. United face Brighton in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday and travel to Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday — both games are expected to come too soon for Baleba. The three-week international break that follows means his focus has shifted to a return in October, delivering a delayed debut for a club that had been tracking him for over a year before completing the move.

The left-back position has also drawn attention following Luke Shaw’s absence this week, with the Manchester derby on the horizon. Free agents David Alaba and Oleksandr Zinchenko are available and capable of filling the role, but United are not exploring that market. Patrick Dorgu, Noussair Mazraoui, and teenager Harry Amass are considered sufficient cover in the interim.

Off the pitch, Michael Farrell has departed Old Trafford after 11 years with the club. Farrell served as United’s first-ever head of football culture and development — a role he held for one year — having previously been head of player wellbeing. He also brought experience from stints at Wigan Warriors and Sale Sharks before joining United in 2015. His exit was confirmed this week, though he is understood to have left at the end of last season. The position has not been filled, with his duties absorbed by other staff members.

“It would be impossible to capture in a few words what it has meant to work for a club of this scale, history and significance,” Farrell said. “Manchester United has been far more than an employer to me; it has been an environment that has challenged me, developed me and given me experiences I could never have anticipated when I first walked through the door in 2015.”

Elsewhere, United’s commercial week produced an awkward juxtaposition. The club announced SumUp as their largest-ever sleeve partnership, eclipsing the £20 million per season previously paid by DXC Technology. Within 90 minutes, Liverpool unveiled a front-of-shirt deal with Turkish Airlines reported to be worth £60 million a season — a figure Anfield insiders described as a Premier League record, though United’s existing Snapdragon shirt deal is understood to be worth a comparable amount.