Brighton star Carlos Baleba has quickly deleted a cheeky social media post that added fuel to speculation linking him with a move to Manchester United.
In recent years, Baleba has emerged as one of the best young midfielders and he attracted serious interest from Man Utd in the summer.
The Red Devils made an audacious move to sign Baleba as they looked to sign a quality No.6, though they were priced out of a move for the £100m-rated Brighton star.
It was widely reported that Baleba was in favour of a move to Old Trafford, while Man Utd left the door open for a future transfer by deciding against signing an alternative.
Baleba has remained heavily linked with Man Utd in recent months, with this impacting his form for Brighton.
Baleba made a poor start to this season as he’s also been impacted by a knee injury, though he has returned to form in recent matches.
The centre-midfielder produced his best performance of the season to date last weekend after holding ‘private talks’ with head coach Fabian Hurzeler as Brighton beat Newcastle 2-1.
Baleba is likely to start for Brighton against Man Utd at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon, though he has risked annoying Hurzeler and supporters by posting a light-hearted message on social media.
He uploaded an image to preview Saturday’s match, which was captioned: “Coming to Old Trafford [laughing emoji].”
Baleba quickly deleted this post and later played it safe by re-uploading the image without a caption.
Ahead of this match, Hurzeler has explained why he thinks Baleba’s form has changed following his disappointing start to the campaign.
“I saw a Carlos Baleba who stepped up,” Hurzeler said in an interview with Sky Sports.
“These were good actions and good behaviours he showed, but he has to make habits out of those good behaviours. That’s the next step in his development, to bring consistency to his performance.
“For me, it’s always important that I’m very transparent with the players. I have a very good relationship with Carlos. We speak regularly, we are in touch. I always share my thoughts about his development and my thoughts about his performance.
“It’s important to be very clear about what you expect from players on the pitch, off the pitch. And it’s important to build relationships where you can criticise or give personal feedback they might not be happy about, but they understand the intention behind it.
“Carlos won’t get better if he only gets compliments and claps from outside. I think he will get better if he has a safe environment, but also honest feedback where he knows what he needs to improve. That’s where we try to support him and make him better.