Galatasaray and Olympique Marseille have reportedly joined in the race to sign Manchester United flop Memphis Depay, who has, for all intents and purposes, been frozen out by manager Jose Mourinho.
After a £25 million move to Old Trafford from Dutch giants PSV in the summer of 2015, Depay had a decent first season at Manchester United under Louis Van Gaal, where he scored 7 goals and provided 10 assists in 49 appearances across all competitions. Though he could not perform at a consistent level, much of that could be attributed to the fact that he was still adjusting to the demands of the English Premier League.
However, Jose Mourinho’s arrival hasn’t helped Depay’s development and he has fallen out of favour with the Portuguese. According to Le10Sport, Ligue 1 giants Olympique Marseille are interested in signing the winger and are currently tracking him. Having barely featured under Mourinho this term, the attacker may look for a January switch in a bid to save his career.
The Mirror report that Turkish side Galatasaray have also joined the race for the United number 7 and may make a January bid for him. The report states that Galatasaray would ‘test the waters’ with a £15m bid in the winter window. Current Galatasaray manager Jan Olde Riekerink would be well aware of Depay’s talents and abilities after being involved with Ajax in the Eredivisie, where they faced the 22-year-old during his time at rivals PSV.
The Turkish giants would be joining the likes of Wolfsburg, AC Milan and AS Roma in the race for Depay’s signature. Depay has made 7 appearances in all competitions this season, of which only one has been a start. In all his appearances from the bench, he has failed to register a single goal or assist. Needless to say, the ‘Special One’ is not impressed.
So far this season, only Juan Mata has won back his place in Mourinho’s Manchester United squad after putting in a string of impressive performances, but the chances of Depay doing the same seem slim at best for the moment.
Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Matteo Darmian have all found game time extremely difficult to come by and Depay will likely join them in finding another club next year. It is unlikely that Manchester United will sell such a huge talent so easily, especially after spending £25 million to buy him just a year ago. Rather, a loan move to another European league in order for him to find his form and prove himself again would be the best way to go, if they plan to retain him.
