ACF Fiorentina’s demands for Sofyan Amrabat dropped to €13 million

Fiorentina may be willing to accept a reduced fee for Manchester United to sign Sofyan Amrabat after the Moroccan international’s loan deal at Old Trafford expired without the Red Devils exercising a buy option.

United brought Amrabat to England at the end of last summer’s transfer window at the personal request of Erik ten Hag who had previously worked with the midfielder at FC Utrecht.

The Dutch manager is a big fan of Amrabat’s attitude and professionalism but also envisioned him providing support and cover to Casemiro in midfield. However, theory did not translate to practice as Amrabat struggled as much, if not more, than Casemiro who suffered his own downturn in performance last season.

The Fiorentina man rarely featured for United throughout the year and a return to Italy had appeared a formality as the season drew to a close.

Yet, in a late surge, Amrabat replaced Casemiro in defensive midfield in United’s final few games, producing a series of solid performances which enabled the more creative players around him to flourish. This culminated in the FA Cup final triumph over local rivals Manchester City at Wembley at the end of May – revenge for the previous year’s loss in the same game.

While Amrabat was far from spectacular, he was aggressive and controlled in equal measure at the heart of Ten Hag’s rejigged midfield, enabling players like Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo to push forward to great effect; the Fernandes-Mainoo pivot combining wonderfully to score United’s second in a game they would end as 2-1 winners.

It was a solid defensive midfield performance – the type sorely missing at Old Trafford last season. And it was sufficient to give a glimmer of hope that the club may seek to make Amrabat’s stay at United permanent by activating the €20 million buy-option in his loan move.

Nonetheless, INEOS, the new rulers at United following Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ratification as co-owner in February, decided against this move and Amrabat returned to Fiorentina.

However, reports suggest United retain an interest in the Moroccan with Ten Hag open to him remaining in Manchester, but the club are unwilling to pay the price agreed under the previous regime at Old Trafford.

Amrabat is extremely keen on staying at Old Trafford with some sources believing he was not given a fair chance to make his move a success, having been played out-of-position with Casemiro always prioritised over the 28-year-old midfielder. He was recently filmed wearing United shorts during a pre-season workout.

A report from La Nazione Sport, an Italian outlet, now reveals two options may convince INEOS to revisit a move for Amrabat.

The first would be Fiorentina reducing their €20 million asking price to a “renegotiated figure (€13 million or a little more)”; the second would be another loan move, but Amrabat would have to agree to a contract extension with La Viola for this option to be exercised, as his current deal is set to expire in June 2025.

With United’s budget set to be stretched to the extreme this summer, a cheap deal for a player already acclimated to life at Old Trafford in a position of need may represent enough of a bargain for INEOS to pull a trigger they otherwise were not keen to do.

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