Man Utd ready bid to sign £34m Anderson alternative

As Manchester United search for a new midfielder, how they must wish they could call upon Paul Pogba in his prime.

The great Frenchman had it all. He was a physical specimen, a technical genius, a warrior and he had this swagger about him that only really Cristiano Ronaldo could ever match at Old Trafford.

However, long gone are the days of Pogba patrolling the United midfield. They have tried and failed to sign Elliot Anderson, who could well have been their best midfielder since the French superstar, so alternatives will have to be assessesd.

Manchester City have seen a remarkable £120m bid rejected for Anderson and it’s a fee the Red Devils will not be able to compete with.

The latest on Manchester United’s midfield search

Man United had earmarked Anderson as their dream target for the upcoming summer transfer window but before it even opens next Monday, they have been dealt their first big blow.

While they have worked tirelessly to secure the £39m signature of Ederson from Atalanta, the Brazilian will not be joined in the engine room by Anderson.

He will likely move to the Etihad for a Premier League record fee or he will stay at Nottingham Forest. Evangelos Marinakis is one of the toughest negotiatiors in the game so what happens there is anyone’s guess.

With United withdrawing from the race to sign the England international as a result of that price tag, they are now looking at a midfielder in Ligue 1, someone with similiar qualities to the aforementioned Pogba.

Indeed, according to reports from France, the recruitment team at Old Trafford are now weighing up a big move for RC Lens star Mamadou Sangare.

They report that Man United are now ‘preparing an offer’ with the player’s value sitting at around the £34m mark, although there is potential that the French side will demand even more.

More than a dozen clubs are interested in the Mali international but no official bids have been made yet to prise him away from Les Sang et Or.

Why Sangare could be Man United’s new Paul Pogba

It’s safe to say United supporters have something of a love hate relationship with Pogba.

In his prime, the midfielder was a gigantic presence in the squad. He was the complete player, scoring as many as 30 times and supplying 51 assists in the famous red shirt. 16 of those goals came in just one season, the 2018/19 campaign. That remains the best year of his whole career.

Not just a goalscorer and creator, he was a monster from a physical point of view. He could batter opponents to one side, break up and recover possession with ease and carry the ball up the pitch swiftly with his enormous strides.

Sadly, amid attitude problems, it all ended in tears as he ultimately left on a free transfer back in the summer of 2022.

Since then, you could argue that United have struggled to replace his best qualities. In Casemiro, they acquired one of the best defensive midfielders of his generation and while he was a gladiator in midfield under several managers, he did not have the elite carrying skills that Pogba possessed.

In signing Ederson, they will replace some of Casemiro’s ball-winning qualities but he is still not the sensational carrier of the ball that Pogba was.

Sangare, however, is very much cut from a similar cloth as the World Cup winner. Described as “one of the most complete midfielders in Europe” by journalist and European football expert Bence Bocsak, the 23-year-old is superb in a whole range of metrics.

As of March 2026, Sangare had won 6.61 ground duels per 90 in Ligue 1. To put that number into context, only Jude Bellingham with 6.83 wins had a better average of any midfielder in Europe’s top five leagues.

Like Pogba, he’s a physical monster, but he’s also strong in other areas. Further described as a “proper box-to-box midfielder with great dynamism and energy” by Bocsak, the young Mali star ended up ranking as high as the top 5% of midfielders in the French top-flight for recoveries per 90, making a whopping 8.01.

Sangare also ranked among the best 7% for tackles with 3.33 and in the top 16% for dribbles with 1.24. In that aforementioned 2018/19 season when Pogba was at his best, he made 1.79 dribbles and 6.52 ball recoveries.

Sure, there are a few differences in the numbers but just watching the Lens superstar you get a sense for what a midfield presence he is.

The next challenge for him is to add more goal involvements. Pogba certainly has him beat in that regard but Sangare is improving, having scored three goals and supplied a further four assists in 39 games this season.

You sense that if he played in a more ball dominant side those figures would only improve, further elevating that comparison to Pogba.