United sell Darmian on the cheap to Parma

During Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s press conference on Friday morning he confirmed that Matteo Darmian would be joining Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez and Chris Smalling as the players to leave Manchester United this summer.

Darmian and Rojo leaving? I can see maybe Matteo. There has been some interest in Matteo over in Italy. Marcos, he’s staying definitely. We’ve got a squad now that’s less in numbers, but still big enough and strong enough to have coverage in all positions.

Reports from Italy claim that United have agreed a deal with Parma which will see the full-back leave for just £1.3m. This seems like a pitiful amount in today’s market but will mean that United are free of the commitment of paying him over £2m a year.

Darmian has been at United for four seasons, playing 92 games in total, but has barely had a look in over the past two campaigns. It’s bizarre that they didn’t sell him before now. When you consider that Rafael Da Silva was sold to make way for Darmian, it makes the whole situation all the more confusing, and a poor error from Louis van Gaal.

The Italian did have his moments though, namely the Europa League final in 2017 when he put in a fantastic display against Ajax, but it never really worked out.