Man United Opinion: Red Devils should beat Spurs in the race to sign Nelson Semedo

According to The Sun, Man United and Spurs are set to go head to head in a transfer tug of war over £30 million-rated Barcelona right-back Nelson Semedo in the summer.

The Sun understands that the 25-year-old Portuguese international is unhappy with his role at the Camp Nou and would welcome the opportunity to join another club in search of more regular minutes.

Barcelona are prepared to cash in on him in the summer to fund a move for Antione Griezmann, with Sergi Roberto a stalwart in that position and highly-rated Senegalese youngster Moussa Wague also pushing for a role in the first-team. (h/t Sun)

The Sun reports that Spurs are willing to offload the likes of Serge Aurier and Kieran Trippier, with the latter being linked with a move to Napoli, and have set their sights on Semedo as the new first-choice right-back. Man United, on the other hand, are also in the hunt for a new right-back to replace the ageing and underwhelming Ashley Young.

A youth product of lower division Portuguese club Sintrense, Semedo rose to prominence in Portugal with Benfica and made 65 appearances for the Primeira Liga giants before being snapped up by Barcelona back in 2017. He has done well over the course of his couple of seasons in the La Liga but he has been forced to share the right-back duties with Sergi Roberto.

Semedo has started 19 games for Barcelona in the La Liga this term, with Ernesto Valverde favouring Roberto a bit more in that role due to his better all-around abilities. The 25-year-old, however, is at the peak of his powers and clearly wants more involvement in the first team elsewhere.

To put things into perspective, Nelson Semedo is an excellent defender and he would be an ideal signing for both Man United and Spurs this summer. The Red Devils, however, would do themselves a world of good and get one over their Premier League rivals if they manage to win the race for the 25-year-old Portuguese international.

Man United showed a lot of promise in the initial stages of the Solskajer era but the Red Devils failed to keep up that level of consistency and faltered badly towards the end of the season. United finished the season with a winless streak of 5 games in the Premier League, which includes humiliating defeats at the hands of Everton and Cardiff City, consequently falling short of Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs for the final Champions League spot.

The poor run of results towards the end of the campaign might as well have put Solskjaer’s position in jeopardy and the Norwegian is likely to make significant changes to his squad ahead of the upcoming season. While reinforcements in attack and central midfield are expected to be in the manager’s agenda for the summer, United also need to invest in a new right-back to replace Ashley Young.

It has become quite apparent from his performances this season that the Red Devils cannot compete at the highest level with the 34-year-old in their side. They brought in Diogo Dalot last summer but the youngster is still very much in the developmental phase of his career and United cannot look at him as someone who could start regularly at right-back and deliver the goods week-in-week-out.

A top-quality right-back is the need of the hour at Old Trafford and Nelson Semedo certainly fits the bill. Semedo might not provide that dazzling presence and flair in the attacking third but few can argue that he is a technically gifted player and a very sound right-back.

That’s not to say he is a complete slouch further up the pitch. He lacks the crossing ability of a modern-day offensive-minded full-back but he makes up for it with his wonderful reading of the game, excellent passing abilities, high levels of concentration and astute positioning, while also possessing the intelligence and the awareness to respond to the transitions in play.

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The Portuguese international is only 25 and he still has time on his side to make plenty of improvements to his game. Hence, United have every reason to look at him as someone who could possibly solve their right-back conundrum for years to come.