Manchester United have reportedly given the ‘green light’ to bid £90million for Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder Carlos Baleba.
The Red Devils have looked much improved after an abysmal 2024/25 campaign, while Baleba’s own form has dipped significantly.
Carlos Baleba in 2025/26 Premier League: The numbers
- 228th for progressive passes (10)
- 32nd for interceptions (10)
- 110th for tackles (11)
- 50th for ball recoveries (35)
Man Utd are a dizzy eighth in the Premier League after winning three and drawing one of their last four games.
It looked like becoming four league wins in a row at Nottingham Forest on Saturday with Ruben Amorim’s men leading 1-0 at half-time, but five minutes into the second half it was 2-1 to Forest. Amad Diallo earned Man Utd a point in the end.
Third in the form table and top in the table against top-half sides, Man Utd are definitely on the up, but there’s still plenty of work to do before they can be considered genuine challengers for the Champions League places.
Their improved form can be attributed to the money spent improving their attack in the summer, with Matheus Cunha, Benjamin Sesko and Bryan Mbeumo joining for around £200million.
Despite spending over £210m on six new signings, Man Utd will look to back Amorim again in January.
Man Utd ‘give green light’ for £90m Baleba ‘bid’
One player Amorim has been given the go-ahead to pursue is Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba, according to a respected account on X with a team of five elite reporters.
Man Utd tried to sign Baleba in August but were put off by Brighton’s £100m valuation. Since then, the midfielder’s form has dipped and the Seagulls could now be more open to a sale.
Signing a central midfielder is Amorim’s top priority and it’s claimed that Brighton and Man Utd are ‘negotiating the transfer’.
It’s also said that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is ‘willing to spend £90m on Baleba’, with the ‘green light given to submit a bid’.
Sesko has a lot to prove at Man Utd
Next up for Man Utd is Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
They face a side struggling at home with only one win from five this season, but the Red Devils have only one away win themselves, that memorable victory at Anfield over Liverpool last month.
New signing Sesko has scored only twice in 11 games for Man Utd and was dropped to the bench for that win against the Premier League champions.
Former Newcastle manager Alan Pardew is among those who believe the jury is still out on the £73m signing of the Slovenian striker.
“The jury is very much out on him,” Pardew told talkSPORT.
“I’ve not really seen enough from him yet to stick my hat on him and say, ‘Wow, this guy’s going to be great’.
“It just seems like one of those normal kind of striker bedding-in periods, isn’t it? Where he’s in, he’s out, he’s not really getting game time, enough of it.
“The problem with Manchester United of course is when you’ve got a squad which is built for European campaigns, you’ve got no Europe.
“So, he hasn’t got that quantity of games that perhaps he would like.
“It’s a nice problem for him [head coach Ruben Amorim] because he gets to work on the team from Monday to Friday so to speak.
“For Amorim, I think this is probably what he needed this year, just to sort of work on the team, get his ideas across. Sort that energy out in midfield… and get the striker up and running.”