Reports: Contract talks break down between Adrien Rabiot, Manchester United

For days we’ve been hearing that the one thing preventing Adrien Rabiot from moving to the Premier League was that his mother/agent Veronique and Manchester United had yet to agree to personal terms. Reports over the weekend made

That optimism appears to be gone.

According to reports from The Athletic’s David Ornstein, Sky Sport Italia’s Fabrizio Romano and Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti, contract talks between the Rabiot camp and Manchester United have hit the skids. So much so that Ornstein describes the move as “now highly unlikely,” with Rabiot’s salary demands being the one major sticking point between his side and United. According to reports late last week, Juventus and Man United had already agreed to a deal for Rabiot — who is in the last year of his contract at Juve — for in the neighborhood of €18 million.

Romano described Rabiot’s contract demands as “completely crazy,” while Nicolo Schira said that Rabiot is asking for €9 million a season plus add-ons with mother/agent Veronique getting €10 million (!!!) in commission. According to Schira, Manchester United have offered Rabiot a contract worth €7 million a season, the same amount he currently makes at Juventus.

Well this is a rather disappointing development, isn’t it? But, when you consider the fact that Juventus already pay Rabiot a substantial amount of money each season, it’s maybe not so much of a surprise that his mother/agent is asking for a raise and said demand is considered way too much money to pay a player.

Basically, if a player is asking for superstar kind of money yet isn’t a superstar, then you’ve got problems. And now a player who wants to leave Juventus is still very much at Juventus and heading into a somewhat uncertain future in the immediacy while the summer transfer window is still open.

Rumors of who Manchester United could pursue now that talks with Rabiot seem rather dead in the water have already started. And with the demands that Rabiot’s camp seem very much wanting and won’t derive from, it doesn’t seem all that likely that United will suddenly restart talks unless there’s some kind of major shift in money demands.

Let me repeat: Romano called Rabiot’s contract demands “completely crazy.”

That’s not something you hear come from transfer reporters even in a completely inflated Premier League transfer market. And when you’re the one being told your contract demands are way too high and the one telling you that is Manchester United, then you have to believe that things are pretty in line with the kinds of figures that Schira reported above.