Carrick backs £160m midfield rebuild as United close in on third signing

Manchester United are closing in on a third midfield signing of the summer transfer window, with Brighton’s Carlos Baleba the primary target as the club’s spending on the position approaches £160m. United have already secured Andrey Santos from Chelsea for £50m and Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa for £35m, and have submitted an opening bid of £60m plus £5m in add-ons for Baleba.

The club are hopeful of landing the Brighton midfielder for under £75m, and there is optimism internally that a deal can be reached. Manager Michael Carrick confirmed United are actively working to strengthen further before the window closes, though he stopped short of guaranteeing another arrival.

“We’re working towards that,” Carrick said when asked whether a third midfield signing was necessary. “I think largely we’ve got a really good balance within the group. As it stands now, we’ve got some very good, top midfielders to choose from. We want to finish stronger as the window closes.”

The midfield overhaul was identified as United’s primary objective heading into the summer, driven largely by the exit of Casemiro. Carrick acknowledged the club had missed out on higher-profile targets earlier in the window — Elliot Anderson joined Manchester City for £116m, while Mateus Fernandes moved from West Ham to Tottenham for £85m — but expressed satisfaction with the signings made so far.

“There are certainly players who have gone for and been more expensive, I think that’s pretty obvious,” Carrick said. “We’re delighted with the two that we’ve brought in. Two fantastic players give us really good balance, give us a lot within the team, offer us different things. For the value that we feel we’ve got, I think we’ve done very well with them two especially.”

Carrick framed the rebuild as part of a broader necessity to keep evolving. “You’ve got to evolve, you’ve got to find ways of moving forward, you’ve got to find ways of winning, essentially,” he said. “We’ve brought in some really, really top players and really good characters, which is important. And we’ve got to evolve and we’ve got to improve.”

Should a deal for Baleba be concluded, United’s combined outlay on midfielders this window would stand at approximately £160m — a significant statement of intent as Carrick looks to reshape the engine room of his squad.