Any hope that Manchester United would sign Diego Godin on transfer deadline day didn’t last very long at all.
Godin emerged as a late candidate to solve United’s central defender crisis and his release clause at Atletico Madrid made the move look relatively realistic.
The Uruguayan centre-half would have been able to move for just £17.5 million this summer and it’s easy to see why Jose Mourinho viewed him as a short-term solution to the problem in the heart of the Red Devils’ back four.
On Thursday morning, several reports claimed that United had contacted Atletico in the hopes of adding Godin to their squad before the 5pm deadline.
The 32-year-old was reportedly offered a deal worth £8 million-a-year at Old Trafford but Godin turned down the opportunity in favour of a new contract at Atletico.
Understand @ManUtd did inquire about Diego Godin earlier this week. Nothing doing. Is set to sign a new contract at Atletico.
— Simon Stone (@sistoney67) August 9, 2018
Having signed for the La Liga outfit in 2010, Godin has no intention of leaving this summer and, at the time of writing, he is close to committing his future to Diego Simeone’s side.
United were hopeful that they could have persuaded Godin to sign and join his new teammates in time for the Red Devils’ Premier League season opener against Leicester on Friday night but they will have to return to the drawing board now.
Having been linked with moves for Harry Maguire, Toby Alderweireld, Jerome Boateng and Yerry Mina this summer, United suddenly began showing an interest in Chelsea’s Kurt Zouma late on Wednesday night.
But Mourinho told reporters at the beginning of deadline day that he didn’t anticipate any new arrivals at Old Trafford.
At his pre-match press conference, Mourinho was asked if he expected any late transfer business.
“The information I have is no,” he said.
“I’m not confident, I’m not confident and the market closes today so is time at least for me to stop thinking about the market because the market will be closed.
“So I will have to focus on the players I have and in relation to this first couple of matches, maybe four matches because after Burnley there is national team and a couple of weeks to recover people and prepare people better, is to focus on players available so I’m not thinking about that list I give you, I focus on what we have.”
