With the injury to the new £30m summer signing Erik Bailly in the game against Chelsea, there are reports now of Manchester United shifting their attention to get in the highly rated Jose Gimenez from Atletico Madrid in the winter transfer window.
The Uruguayan defender who appeared 27 times in the La Liga last season has found it extremely hard to get into the first team with Stefan Savic being the player taking his position and performing very well as well making it even harder to drop him from the lineup.
This season, the Uruguayan has made only one appearance in the La Liga for the Los Colchoneros and appeared once in the Champions League to take his total appearance count so far this season to two. A player who performed so well last season surprising everyone with his quality and maturity despite his age should not be happy about the present situation at the Calderon where he is reduced to a substitute mostly.
It is said that United are readying a £50m opening bid for the defender who has a release clause of £56m.
It has been a dramatic period for the defender who has already attracted the interests of Arsenal and Real Madrid as well. Atletico handed Gimenez an improved contract in January which included his buy-out clause and a significant rise in his weekly wages but didn’t extend the length of his original contract which expires in 2018.
With Stefan Savic partnering Diego Godin well at the heart of the defence, Simeone is now having second thoughts in restoring Gimenez back to the starting XI.
The Atletico boss knows he has a problem but is well aware that the problem is only due to the exceptional quality he has at his disposal. When quizzed about the supposed lack of world class defenders in world football the Argentine said, “I have the four best central defenders in the world. Hopefully it continues like that.”
The current situation will be problematic though with a little over 18 months remaining on Gimenez’s contract. With the transfer window approaching, it would be interesting to see what happens with the defender in the coming days. At the moment his release clause makes him the most expensive defender of the world but there’s little doubt that his price will continue to tumble as he gets closer to becoming a free agent unless he signs another extension at the Calderon.
With the lack of game time, it is looking a bit unlikely but it would be hard to sign the player in January for the Los Colchoneros have shown that they can keep their best players despite strong interests from the others.
