Aurelien Tchouameni is the dream Man United signing – but there’s one thing they cannot ignore

The atmosphere should be filled with hope and excitement. However, when it comes to transfers, United supporters are starting to get twitchy. The Reds wasted no time in agreeing a deal for Ederson from Atalanta before looking to replace Casemiro.

Elliot Anderson was their priority but United hit two brick walls. The England international was set on moving to Manchester City and his £116m price tag was deemed too steep. Next on the list was Mateus Fernandes. West Ham’s midfielder was more attainable but the east London club were adamant on his valuation.

United waited to see if they would budge. Eventually, West Ham didn’t have to as Tottenham Hotspur agreed to pay £85m. This has left the Reds scrambling as they prepare to return for pre-season without Casemiro’s replacement.

One of the names on United’s shortlist is Real Madrid’s Aurelien Tchouameni. He is seen as the dream signing for the Reds and, speaking to MEN Sport, LaLiga Expert editor Mark Sochon explained why.

“I think his main strengths are his physicality, [he is] tall, strong,” Sochon explained. “He is very disciplined, disciplined positionally, and, also, he’s quite a versatile player.

“He can play in a single pivot, double pivot, he’s played a fair bit at centre back as well, although I don’t think it’s necessarily his best position, but he’s absolutely useful there as sort of a back-up. I think back to his height in defending set pieces too, he’s pretty good at that as well.”

While Tchouameni would be seen as a replacement for Casemiro, Sochon considers the Frenchman to be an altogether different player.

“He’s not necessarily a player who’s going to dive into lots of challenges, but he’s strong,” he explained. “I think he’s a player maybe managers appreciate more than fans, if that makes sense. He doesn’t have those blockbuster moments, so he’s not really going to pop up with a last-minute winner or make that kind of crunching tackle in the midfield, but he’s low-key.

“I think last season was probably his best season for Real Madrid, even though it’s a poor one for the team.”

Tchouameni had a well-publicised fallout with Federico Valverde last season that left the latter heading to the hospital. But Sochon was keen to stress that the 26-year-old is no troublemaker.

“I think my response to that [incident] would be, of the two players, it’s Valverde that’s certainly being seen as a bit more hot-headed,” he said. “He had a few kind of scraps in the past as well, not with teammates that have been public, but there’s been mumblings that he’s maybe not the most popular player in the dressing room.

“So my interpretation was that was more from him than from Tchouameni. I think the final months of the season was just a bit of a disaster around Real Madrid in general.

“There was another incident, a few days before that, with a couple of players kind of having a big confrontation; it just felt like the whole squad just fell apart in the end. I don’t think Tchouameni is seen as one of the ringleader characters that needs to be moved on though.”

And therein lies the problem for United: Sochon sees little reason to believe Real would want to sell Tchouameni.

While he admits a £100m bid may be too good to refuse, Sochon thinks new head coach Jose Mourinho would ideally want to sell Eduardo Camavinga before agreeing to Tchouameni’s exit. Perhaps most worryingly for United, he adds that this pursuit reminds him of another failed transfer the Reds would hate to see a repeat of.

“I see it a bit like when they went for Frenkie de Jong a couple of summers ago,” Sochon concluded. “He’s one of those players that it’d be difficult to get, but like we talked about before, maybe the scenario where a big offer comes in and Real Madrid think, you know what, we can take £100m, we can reinvest that and we can get three or four players in soon to improve the squad.

“I think there’ll still be a few doubters amongst the fanbase as to his importance. Last season was in the context of a team that was just a bit all over the place.

“But, I think it would take a really big offer from United and then it’s on Tchouameni. I don’t know how eager he is to leave Madrid, so I think it’s a difficult deal to pull off for United.”

The last thing United need is to be dragged into another transfer saga. Who knows what the remainder of the summer will bring, but Tchouameni might be a name best scratched off the list of targets.