Manchester United’s defensive woes have certainly been well-documented this season. Currently on an astonishing of goal difference of -1 (compare that to perennial rivals Manchester City of +31) in the middle of November, United have managed to keep just a single clean sheet in the domestic league so far.
The failure to secure big moves for Harry Maguire, Toby Alderweireld, and Jérôme Boateng – as was frequently speculated throughout the summer – has loomed over the new campaign, and United manager Jose Mourinho has been outspoken in his frustration in not being given permission by the United hierarchy to splash the cash to create a back-line to compete with the big boys.
Out-of-favour Chelsea centre-back Gary Cahill, the player Mourinho coached for three years to great success, has now been given the go-ahead to make the move to join the Portuguese in Manchester, reports The Metro.
Cahill has been a Chelsea player since the beginning of 2012, and has gone on to win a brace of Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a League Cup, and a Europa League.
He also helped achieved Chelsea’s first – and so far only – Champions League success in the first six months of his £7million arrival from Bolton Wanderers.
The 32-year-old is obviously not a long-term option for United’s defensive issues, but adheres to Mourinho’s ethos of plastering up open wounds with experienced figures.
Cahill was a fundamental part of Mourinho’s Chelsea side that would win the title in 2014/15.
However, under new coach Maurizio Sarri – who has just broken the record for the longest unbeaten spell for a new manager in the Premier League – the Englishman has been left out in the cold, featuring just once out of 12 available EPL games this season (allowed 21 minutes of action against West Ham) and has now been given the green-light to leave Stamford Bridge in January in a likely loan move to United.
The signing is unlikely to be greeted with much enthusiasm from the Red Devil contingent, who have seen Manchester City splurge on a solid £200million defence in recent years, as well as Liverpool smashing the transfer record for a defender after finally bringing Virgil Van Djik from Southampton at the beginning of the year.
However, instead treating the move as more pragmatic, bringing in a veteran of the EP, who has won virtually everything there is to win in club football and is thrice-recipient of a PFA Team of the Year inclusion, should see Cahill well-received at Old Trafford.
Furthermore, with Victor Lindelöf continuing to impress in making the other centre-back position his own after a stalled start to his United career, a player of Cahill’s calibre and experience could be just the nurturing the Swedish international needs to be considered one of the best in the league.
For rivals, Chelsea and Manchester United haven’t been afraid of doing business with each other; former Blues Nemanja Matić and Juan Mata have both made the trip up north in recent years, to mixed levels of success.