As we approach the midway point of January, it’s looking less likely that Manchester United will sign a new midfielder in this winter window.
It’s the club’s priority position to strengthen and has been for a number of seasons.
Multiple names have been linked with a move to Old Trafford, and United are open to strengthening, yet with January notoriously being known as a seller's market, viable options were always going to be at a premium.
"From my experience, winter is not the best time for sustainable transfers.” said Rangnick at the end of last month.
"With the quality of players we have here, it would in theory only make sense if you can get players who can guarantee you more quality. From experience, this will be difficult in the winter."
Behind the scenes then, it’s likely that Rangnick will instead be working with club officials to finalise transfer targets for the summer.
And it’s more than possible that heading up that list could be dominating midfielder Franck Kessie. The highly-rated AC Milan star is currently away on international duty with the Ivory Coast and would be worthy of interest from United based on his abilities alone, yet there’s an added level to his appeal.
At present, his current contract is due to expire in the summer, and he’s not close to agreeing on an extension with the club.
With time ticking away, the Italian giants are resigning themselves to the fact that they’re going to lose the midfielder this summer for free.
This is great news from a United perspective because Kessie possesses a lot of the traits they’d be looking for.
He’s fast, mobile, strong, press resistant but is also imposing in possession. He usually plays in a double pivot in Milan’s favoured 4-2-3-1 formation and boasts an impressive pass success rate of over 91% this season, despite playing a wide range of different short and penetrating balls into more valuable areas of the pitch.
Kessie can also be a driving force with the ball at his feet, able to competently dribble his team up the pitch and disrupt compact defensive structures.
Despite his deep positioning on the field, the 25-year-old has an impressive goal return across this past season-and-a-half, netting no less than 18 league goals.
That return is boosted by the fact that over half of those strikes came from the penalty spot, therefore don't expect such a rate of scoring to be maintained if he was to arrive at Old Trafford.
Still though, Kessie is an aggressive protective presence in the middle, able to adequately press opponents, break up attacks and sweep up danger ahead of the defence. United miss this sort of profile, meaning he’d be a more than welcome addition to the squad.
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