Manchester United are confident that Marcus Rashford and Diogo Dalot will extend their contracts with the club after impressing in the early months of Erik ten Hag’s reign as manager, 90min understands.
Both players are among a number of United first-teamers who are out of contract in 2023, though United do hold optional one-year extensions they can trigger to protect themselves from losing any players in question on free transfers in June.
The likes of David de Gea, Luke Shaw and Cristiano Ronaldo are among a host of players who are able to speak to foreign clubs from January if circumstances don’t change, but decisions are to be made on how the club proceed once the domestic season pauses for the World Cup to take place later this month.
United are though progressing with talks for Rashford and Dalot, who are among United’s best performers so far this term. It’s understood their plans are on course and United already know they would like both to extend long-term, and they’re hopeful matters with both could be concluded before the end of the year.
Both players’ potential involvement in the World Cup for England and Portugal respectively could delay the timeline, but confidence remains. Rashford in particular is understood to be enjoying life at United again after a difficult couple of seasons, and is benefiting from working with both Ten Hag and Steve McClaren, one of the Dutchman’s assistants.
Dalot has been garnering interest from the likes of Barcelona and while he admitted recently he wasn’t thinking about his long-term future, he is enjoying his best spell in the United first team having made the right back position his own.
Ten Hag is very impressed with Dalot’s progression and wants the player to stay, though he would still like the club to sign a new right back in 2023. United are ready to move Aaron Wan-Bissaka – a player barely seen under Ten Hag’s guidance – on as early as January, and are hopeful a deal can be struck with the player’s former club Crystal Palace.
United want competition for places across the pitch and are lacking quality cover for Dalot, and we’ve seen recently Ten Hag’s choice to move Tyrell Malacia – an out-and-out left back – across to the other side to rest the Portuguese where necessary.
The club have the option to recall Ethan Laird in January if they don’t end up signing a new name for the position as back up to Dalot, but do hold interest in the likes of Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong, RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Henrichs and Inter’s Denzel Dumfries.
Norwich’s Max Aarons and Celtic’s Josip Juranovic are other potential options but United are not yet decided on how they proceed – with the latter pair likely need to be brought up to speed at United’s expected levels over the course of a few months.
