Manchester United have held talks with Chelsea and Aston Villa about potential swap deals involving Alejandro Garnacho.
Ruben Amorim’s side want to sign a striker this summer and have interest in both Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson and Villa forward Ollie Watkins. United are keen to use reported interest from both teams in Garnacho to help facilitate a deal.
Garnacho has been informed he is free to leave this summer but no formal offers have been submitted for the Argentina winger. The 21-year-old’s preference is to remain in the Premier League.
Chelsea enquired into his availability in January and remain interested despite the addition of Jamie Gittens.
However, the Independent are reporting that there is a significant gap in valuation between Chelsea and Manchester United. The West Londoners want £80m to sell Jackson, while valuing Garnacho at around £30m. United have substantially different valuations for both players.
Aston Villa have also been contacted to gauge interest in a swap deal involving Garnacho and Watkins. The Villans are seeking a left-sided forward following the exits of loanees Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashford. However, the club’s current stance on Watkins is that the 29-year-old is not for sale.
United consider Watkins an ideal option to complete their new-look forward line, alongside summer signings Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo. That trio combined for 72 goals and assists in the Premier League last season. Amorim’s side, in contrast, scored just 44 goals in 38 games. Only Everton scored fewer among the teams to avoid relegation. United have also made an approach to sign Benjamin Sesko of RB Leipzig.
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