The genius Serie A swap deal that Manchester United could make this summer

Since taking the transfer reins away from the Glazers at Manchester United, Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos seem to have been pretty close attention to Serie A, at least if the constant churn of rumours swirling around Old Trafford aren’t entirely wide of the mark. In particular, they seem to be paying a lot of attention to Bologna.

Thiago Motta’s side have been the surprise package of the Italian top flight so far this season. After enduring just one defeat in their last 11 matches, they have scrambled all the way up into the top four and are serious contenders for a Champions League berth.

Partly as a result, there has been a flurry of rumours linking Manchester United with a move to bring the former Barcelona and Inter Milan midfielder to Salford to take over from Erik ten Hag, whose odds of remaining as United manager look rather slim as it stands. There have also been persistent claims, predating the Motta link, which suggest that Joshua Zirkzee is high on the summer shopping list.

The Dutch deep-lying forward, who came through the youth ranks at Bayern Munich, has been in fine fettle this season, scoring 10 league goals and acting as both Motta’s creative fulcrum and a key link between midfield and attack. He is a very different kind of player to anything United have on the books at the moment, but having become so central to the way Motta sets Bologna up, it would be no great shock if they agreed to bid for him in order to help the prospective new manager settle in.

Of course, regardless of which players they bring in and which manager they put in charge of the squad, United also have a lot of deadwood to get rid of this summer, with experienced – or perhaps more accurately ageing – players like Casemiro and Raphaël Varane among those liable to leave. But they have a lot of players in or around their early 20s as well, players that United need to make decisions on. Are they good enough to compete for a starting spot at Old Trafford? Or is it time for them to find another club?

22-year-old Facundo Pellistri is among those players. The Uruguayan winger has shown flashes of talent since signing from Peñarol back in 2020 but has yet to nail down a starting spot or indeed score a senior goal. While on loan at Granada this year he has, in places, been excellent, scoring one and setting up another in a 3-3 draw against Barcelona back in February, for instance.

But the lingering feeling is that Pellistri is caught in that awkward middle ground where he might be one of the better players at Granada – which his raw numbers suggest he is, although with the club headed for almost certain relegation and with just one win in 2024, that’s perhaps not a high bar to clear – but he isn’t good enough to be a Manchester United player. One wonders whether a club like Bologna might offer a middle ground between the two.

And with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) still firmly in force despite a recent vote to ditch them in the near future, it makes sense for clubs like Manchester United, who need to spend a lot of money, to consider adding players to deals as sweeteners to keep the balance sheets looking a little more healthy – we may well see a few swap deals this summer as clubs look to massage the figures in the hopes of avoiding the fate endured by Everton and Nottingham Forest.

So would it be surprising if United offered Pellistri as a sweetener in a deal for Zirkzee? Probably not, and it may be a valuable card to be able to play given reports that several other clubs are interested in the 22-year-old, with Arsenal, Liverpool and his former club Bayern variously mentioned by different media outlets. There may well be a bit of a bidding war, and any way to butter Bologna up would be helpful.

Pellistri has some genuine talent, but is at an age where he really needs regular first-team football – and isn’t yet good enough to get that at Old Trafford. From United’s perspective, moving him on makes a lot of sense, especially when you consider that his contract runs down in 2025, and there were some reports that they had already tried to include him as a sweetener in a deal for Sporting midfielder Morten Hjulmand. Trying again to get Zirkzee makes a lot of sense.

Nor is Pellistri the only player they need to make a big decision on. Amad Diallo is 21, Shola Shoretire 20. They need to break through or move on very soon, and could well find themselves makeweights in bigger deals too, if the new management don’t deem them to be up to the task.

One way or another, this is going to be a summer of considerable change at Manchester United – don’t be surprised if a number of young talents move on to make way for splashier new signings. Whether Pellistri or Zirkzee are among them remains to be seen, but this could be a summer which sees a different kind of business being done at Old Trafford and elsewhere.