Manchester United have revived their interest in Carlos Baleba and now view a fee in the region of £50m as a sensible price after personal terms were broadly agreed last summer but a transfer failed to materialize.
Baleba, who played five matches for Cameroon at the Africa Cup of Nations and impressed scouts there, has had a difficult campaign at Brighton & Hove Albion. He was substituted off in 15 Premier League games this season, taken off at half-time in four of them and has completed 90 minutes only three times.
The numbers underline why United think a lower fee makes sense. Last summer the club would have gone to £75million and Brighton wanted more than £100m, but United now rate Baleba’s underlying data — in ground coverage, possession-winning and passing — as a good fit for the squad they are building. They watched him closely while he was away with Cameroon and again on Tuesday night when Baleba played well in Brighton’s 3-0 win over Chelsea, winning the ball in the penalty box from Robert Sanchez to set up Jack Hinshelwood for a big chance.
That sequence encapsulates the split assessment of Baleba. On form and in specific moments he can be decisive: the Chelsea performance and his AFCON appearances are clear positives. Across a full Premier League season, however, Brighton and prospective buyers have real questions to answer about consistency and stamina after a campaign in which he was frequently withdrawn.
Manchester United are expected to add two new midfielders this summer, with the hope that one place can come from the academy, and they now see Baleba as sitting in the lower category of targets on their list — useful, but not their lead acquisition. The club also feel an addition is required to cope with the load of Champions League football should they seal qualification, and they are simultaneously tracking the centre-back market as part of a broader squad rebuild.
That mixture of need and caution explains the tactical shift in valuation. United’s willingness to have pushed to £75million last summer reflected a different market view and Brighton’s insistence on more than £100m, but form and playing-time patterns this season have recalibrated that picture. Brighton are led by Tony Bloom, a notoriously tough negotiator, and his club’s previous valuation created the original impasse.
The tension now is straightforward: Baleba’s clear flashes of quality — the AFCON run and the Chelsea game among them — sit uneasily against a season of interrupted appearances and early substitutions. United rate his metrics highly enough to consider a move if the price aligns with perceived risk; Brighton’s negotiating stance and Bloom’s reputation make it unlikely they will sell cheaply without a clear mandate to do so.
The single unanswered question now is whether Brighton will accept a fee in the roughly £50m region and allow Baleba, who agreed broad personal terms with United last summer, to leave for a club that believes his underlying data can be turned into consistent Premier League output.
