Jorge Mendes landed in Barcelona on Thursday to talk about one client heading for the exit. He may leave having been asked about another. Manchester United have called the super-agent to enquire about Alejandro Balde, according to Fabrizio Romano, and with under two weeks of the window left the Alejandro Balde Manchester United story has turned a quiet summer for the left-back into a live one. The player’s own answer, though, is already on the record: he is not asking to leave.
- What Romano actually reported — and what he did not
- Why United turned to the Camp Nou after Newcastle shut the door
- How Joao Cancelo’s permanent deal changes Balde’s season
- The argument for cashing in, and why it is not the club’s position
- What to watch between now and 31 August
Background: a La Masia left-back with a crowded shirt
Balde is 22, he is a La Masia graduate, and he is under contract at Barca until 2028. None of that has stopped this summer from feeling unsettled. As Barca Blaugranes note, it was reported earlier in the window that the club would at least listen to offers for him — a line the player himself was asked to respond to earlier this week, when he broke his silence on the exit talk and said he knew there was “a lot of talk” but was focused on Barca.
His pre-season did not help. A back problem kept him out of the early weeks of the summer programme, and he only worked his way back into the side late on, starting the friendly at Basel and then the Joan Gamper Trophy win over Al Ahly at the Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday, according to Barca Universal. Meanwhile the club went and made the man who took his place a permanent signing.
What Manchester United have actually done about Alejandro Balde
What Romano reported
Romano’s report, carried by both Barca Universal and Barca Blaugranes, is specific and limited. Manchester United have called Mendes to ask about Balde’s situation and the conditions of a possible transfer. That is an enquiry, not a bid. There is no fee on the table, no agreement, and no suggestion from either outlet that Barca have opened a negotiation.
The context makes it more interesting than a routine phone call. Mendes was in Barcelona on Thursday anyway, with several items on his agenda — among them the future of Marc Casado, who is on his way out of the club — and Barca Universal expect him to raise United’s interest in Balde when he sits down with Joan Laporta and sporting director Deco. If a conversation about Balde happens this week, it happens in that room.
Why United came knocking
This is a problem of United’s own making, and it has a Newcastle-shaped hole in it. The Red Devils want a left-back. Their preferred solution was Lewis Hall, and Newcastle closed the door on the England man, which sent United back down their list. Balde is on that list, and the man who can tell them what is possible is Mendes.
It is also not the first time this summer that Old Trafford has looked at a Barca academy product and been told to think again. United’s interest in Gavi was rebuffed earlier in the window. The pattern matters: United are shopping in a market where Barca are not obviously selling.
The Cancelo squeeze
The complication for Balde is not United. It is the Portuguese full-back who has just signed permanently until 2029. Cancelo arrived on loan in the winter and, as Barca Blaugranes put it, Balde lost his place in the starting XI once he did. Now Cancelo is here for three more years, on a free transfer, having given up part of his salary to make the move work.
Even so, the short term reads better for Balde than the headline suggests. Barca Universal expect him to start at Elche in Sunday’s LaLiga opener, on the simple logic that Cancelo only arrived in the building this week and was still being unveiled on Thursday. Cancelo also gives Hansi Flick a right-sided option, which is not the case with Balde, whose competition at left-back is thinner than the noise implies.
There is a squad-planning point buried in here too. Barca have already lost Ronald Araujo to a season-long loan at Liverpool and are reported to be working through possible exits for Casado and Hector Fort before the deadline. Thinning the defence further, in a season with a full LaLiga and Champions League programme and a fitness staff openly managing the squad’s workload, is not an obvious piece of planning.
The counter-argument: the case for cashing in
There is a serious argument on the other side, and Everything Barca make it. Their case is that Balde’s development has stalled: the raw materials — pace, dribbling, recovery running — were always elite, but the final product, and crossing in particular, has not improved at the rate his first season promised. They also report that Flick has doubts about his progress, which is a reported claim rather than anything the manager has said publicly, and they price him at around €50m.
Framed that way, it is a clean piece of business for a club that spent heavily on Anthony Gordon, Karim Adeyemi and Rodri this summer and is still hunting a striker before the deadline. Sell a squeezed academy full-back at a strong price, keep Cancelo and Gerard Martin as cover, and put the money towards the No 9 the club is still chasing. That is the ruthless-superclub version of the summer.
The obvious objection is that it trades a 22-year-old with a decade of peak years in front of him for a 32-year-old on a three-year deal, and leaves Flick one injury from a hole on the left. It is also, for now, an argument being made by outside voices rather than inside the club.
Future outlook: the ten days that decide it
Three things will tell Culers where this is going before the window shuts on 31 August.
- Whether Barca invite an offer. Romano is clear that Balde has no intention of leaving and will only reconsider if the club ask him to. That puts the decision in Laporta and Deco’s hands, not United’s.
- Whether United firm up. An enquiry through an agent is the cheapest move in football. A formal bid, at or near the €50m Everything Barca cite, would be a different conversation.
- Whether the striker search forces the issue. Barca have been working the market for a forward all month. If a deal needs funding late, the calculus on saleable assets can change quickly.
The most likely outcome, on the reporting available, is that nothing happens: the player is settled, the club has not put him up for sale, and United have a fortnight to find a left-back elsewhere. But “most likely” is doing a lot of work in a window that has already delivered Rodri, Cancelo and the departures of Ronald Araujo and Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
The verdict
Read it for what it is. Manchester United have asked a question, Balde has already answered it, and Barca have not spoken. Until the club signals otherwise, the left-back who came through La Masia is a Barca player who expects to start the season at Elche — with a fight on his hands for the shirt, but not one he is running from. Keep an eye on our Barca transfer coverage as the deadline closes in.
