But Angel Postecoglou’s admission that his side’s exit from the competition can be traced to a lack of determination in the transfer market will put the Championship club on red alert, after The Star reported how the former manager -Australian chief has urged the Glasgowians to sign the defender after taking charge last month.
Postecoglou identified Baldock as one of his priority targets following a summit meeting with Parkhead’s recruiting department. Although the former Scottish Premiership champions are only willing to pay around £ 5million for the 28-year-old, whose United contract expires next summer, they believed qualifying for the CL proper would entice Baldock to move north.
However, with a 3-2 total loss to Midtjylland, sent them back to the Europa League play-offs instead.
“I take responsibility for it,” said Postecoglou, after seeing his team withdraw from the competition. “I am the person who was put in charge. I obviously didn’t do a good enough job convincing people that we needed to bring people in. “
“I have tried to be as forceful as possible about what we need to bring, and the challenges we have encountered are well related,” he added. “Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. But I think I was pretty consistent in saying that we need more players and that the club are working hard to bring them in. “
Postecoglou’s barely disguised criticism of Celtic’s hierarchy could persuade them to abandon their policy of trying to draw United to the negotiating table and adopt a more aggressive strategy instead.
Baldock is aware of their interest in acquiring his services. But like Sander Berge and Aaron Ramsdale, whose future in South Yorkshire is also uncertain, he doesn’t seem inclined to force the question.
Indeed, Slavisa Jokanovic, the new United manager, has insisted that all their big names are “happy” after Wednesday’s friendly against Doncaster Rovers. Baldock and Berge were two of Jokanovic’s most effective performers at Keepmoat Stadium, where a brace from Lys Mousset and strikes from Oliver Burke and Luke Freeman helped United to win 4-0.
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Source: www.thestar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-07-31 04:00:00
