Jose Mourinho will reportedly try and offload Eric Bailly and Marcos Rojo in January as he looks to fund a move for a new centre-back.
The two defenders have fallen out of favour at Old Trafford under Mourinho and the Daily Telegraph reports that the Manchester United boss is looking to raise some cash to invest on the new centre-back he failed to sign in the summer.
Harry Maguire, Toby Alderweireld, Jerome Boateng, Diego Godin and Yerry Mina were all understood to be targets in the summer, but the board blocked the Portuguese boss’ efforts to sign any of them.
Now though Mourinho is ready to sell the pair – one of which, Bailly, was Mourinho’s first signing at Old Trafford when he arrived from Villarreal for around £25million in June 2016.
Despite showing promise the 24-year-old has fallen firmly down the pecking order and has only made three Premier League starts this season – and he has not played since he was hauled off after 19 minutes against Newcastle on October 6.
The Ivory Coast man has not made the 18-man squad for the last three Premier League games and if United get a suitable offer for him in the winter transfer window they will sell him.
Argentinian defender Rojo is also believed to be put up for sale – another player who has struggled for game time and is yet to make an appearance this season.
The 28-year-old remains from the Louis van Gaal era after signing in 2014 for £16million from Sporting Lisbon, but his time at Old Trafford is almost up.
Mourinho is thought to have Inter defender Milan Skriniar and Napoli centre-half Kalidou Koulibaly on his wanted list, with Fabio Capello claiming last month that Mourinho had told him he was looking at the pair.
United have also bee linked with Alessio Romagnoli of AC Milan, while one man Mourinho is unlikely to be able to offload is Alexis Sanchez.
The Chile striker is on a huge £500,000 a week at Old Trafford but his move last January from Arsenal has turned into an expensive mistake. The 29-year-old is believed to be looking for a way out of United but his options are limited such is the huge contract he is on at United.
He has scored just once this season and was dropped to the bench for the defeat at Man City and any prospective move would involve a huge financial sacrifice from the player and the club with Sanchez less than a year into a contract that runs until June 2022.