There is just one Manchester United center back who is guaranteed to be there next year, And this is him

There is just one Manchester United center back who is guaranteed to be there next year.

Four Man United center halves cannot be guaranteed to be there for the upcoming campaign due to contract expiration dates, resale value, and the likelihood of a new center back.

Four of Manchester United’s five center halves will be in their 30s at the beginning of the following campaign.

This year, Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane accomplished that feat, and next month, Jonathon Evans turns 36. In July, Victor Lindelof will celebrate turning thirty.

Lindelof’s status as a United player at the commencement of their preseason tour remains unclear. His contract expires on June 30, but if United does not exercise its option to extend it by a year, that would be unusual.

Lindelof still has a lot of miles on him and can be sold for a good price in an international league with no summer obligations. The Swedish team failed to make it to the European Championship.

Wilder’s call to action for Sheffield United prior to their trip to Aston Villa

The Ineos Group would sell Lindelof in the summer if they wanted to leave a legacy. The best time to profit is this summer, as the maximum expiration date is 2025.

If United decides to keep Lindelof for an additional season, they will probably have to give him a new contract or forfeit a fee. The level of uncertainty in the United defense is so great that there is no guarantee that four of the five senior center halves will still be with the team in 2024–25.

Since Varane’s elegant return to the team last week, there has been a great deal of speculation about his future, and it has hardly abated. Varane wants to stay, at least until the January transfer window closes, despite his concerns that United is forcing him out.

According to United sources, Varane’s contract extension is not a given. Even worse, on the first day of the season in August 2021, when Varane walked onto the Old Trafford field, United misrepresented the expiration date as 2024 rather than 2025.

Although Varane has been at United for two and a half years, his brittleness has been a persistent problem. Despite this, Varane is still United’s best defender. He has missed 37 United matches due to illness or injury. In the best-case scenario, Varane’s season will likely be his penultimate due to United’s decision.

Whenever he has been called upon, Jonny Evans has performed admirably, disproving the doubters. Evans, a signing that raised rumors that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was back in the Carrington manager’s office, has made seven starts, with the lone exception coming against Manchester City. Important victories against Burnley and Fulham, as well as the admirable draw at Anfield on Sunday, were supported by his organizational abilities and experience.

Even so, no other premier English team has a center half that is even close to 36 years old. John Stones of Manchester City is the oldest at 29, while Ben White of Arsenal is the oldest at 26. The exception is the 32-year-old Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool. Additionally, Evans’s contract was only for a year.

Evans performed admirably for Anfield.

Maguire is an early and improbable favorite to succeed Marcus Rashford as the owner of the Sir Matt Busby statue. His run of 14 straight starts is his third-longest at United, and it would have reached 15 had he not pulled up against Bayern Munich. He is a deserving winner of the November player of the month award.

His name is now frequently chanted, unlike the previous times when the crowd mockingly applauded Maguire’s dismissal or insisted he stand to honor Cristiano Ronaldo. Maguire’s tenacity has been greatly appreciated by United supporters, even after the team turned down a £30 million bid from West Ham.

Two years ago, while on a European tour, a relative of Maguire’s became agitated when a nearby United supporter bemoaned his form, not realizing that the Maguires were there. When Maguire’s parents boarded their flight to Istanbul last month, they were congratulated on their son’s recovery.

Against Bayern, United supporters honored Maguire.

Maguire has a deal with United through the summer of the 2026 World Cup. As a long-term partner for Lisandro Martinez, United plans to bring in an athletic center half the following season (Erik ten Hag wanted one to take Maguire’s place in the summer). No matter how well Maguire performs now and in the future, a starting position at the beginning of the following campaign cannot be guaranteed.