Whilst most are still concerned about who will be leaving Old Trafford (Mourinho to move on, or will Pogba be pushed out?), in some more welcome news for supporters Manchester United are steaming ahead with potential acquisitions ready for the January transfer window.
One such player is the Lille winger Nicholas Pépé, who is lighting up the stage for Les Dogues with a stellar start to the new Ligue 1 season, and has already peaked the interest across the France/Spanish border.
Barcelona stalwart Éric Abidal - now director of football - has recently spoken out about blaugrana interest in Pépé, reports Mundo Deportivo, explicitly stating that the rumours are ‘true’ and that the possibility of Pépé moving to the Nou Camp is ‘very, very interesting’.
The French-born, Ivory Coast international scored four goals and assisted four in Lille’s first six league games, contributing to eight of his team’s eleven goals (or 73% of the total), though a disappointing game in the away loss to Bordeaux followed.
Manchester United had sent a scout to the match at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux and would have watched Pépé repeatedly being denied by home goalkeeper Benoit Costil.
However, per SportWitness, the 23-year-old Pépé has collected the highest rating of any player in the French top tier so far this season from prestigious publication L'Équipe.
In the league, Lille currently sit in a Europa League spot just outside the top three, pushed out of a top-three berth purely on goal difference to Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique de Marseille.
What is certain that if Pépé does continue this scintillating form, then it won’t just be Manchester United and Barcelona registering their interest in the remaining months of 2018.
United’s fellow Premier League side Arsenal have also reportedly been sniffing around, as have Southampton.
Pépé has played almost 50 games for Lille since moving from Angers last year and currently his contract at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy runs until the summer of 2022.
If the transfer does go ahead to bring him to Manchester - with reports around the €30million mark - this will undoubtedly put further pressure on Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford, and even Jesse Lingard to fight for a place in the starting XI and though he will be an exciting addition to the red ranks, it will give Mourinho more of a selection headache.
