Medhi Benatia turned down a January offer from Manchester United before joining Al Duhail in Qatar, according to Goal.
They report that Benatia was among United’s targets last month when he left Juventus but elected to move to Qatar because he wanted to bring up his family in a Muslim country.
But given that the Manchester Evening News report that United have now moved away from Jose Mourinho’s preferred approach of targeting short-term defensive options, there are questions to be asked.
Would United really have made a play for a 31-year-old, in light of that, not to mention in the middle of a season after which it’s not clear who the new long-term manager will be?
And it is also pertinent to ask whether the Morocco international would have been the right fit anyway, given that he has now elected to take a move that looks like moving his career towards its twilight.
There is definitely reason to have doubts on both those scores, making it hard to believe that the former Bayern man genuinely snubbed a concrete offer from United last month.