We all heard all these rumors about Real Madrid’s defender Pepe and his future, whether in Madrid or any other city. Pepe comes from a great season ending when he finished it being one of the most important players of Portugal national team that won the Eurocup months ago.
All that joy came to an end at the beginning of this season, as Pepe is in the last year of his contract, and he and Real are yet to sign a new one, but as far as we know they haven’t made an agreement about Pepe’s request of a new two-year deal. On top of that, he also has a great and younger competitor in Raphael Varane, which is the center back of the future for Real Madrid.
Other teams watched this situation, and they want to take advantage of this and make Pepe one of their players. One of those teams is Manchester United, as the defender has already played for Mourinho when the Portuguese head coach was in front of Real Madrid, and they both have a great relationship and given the defensive problems Manchester has right now (along with Eric Bailly’s injury), Pepe is seen like one of the options to fill a spot in Mourinho’s lineup.
The European champion for both club and the national team is linked to move from Madrid to Manchester next winter transfer window, but Manchester United isn’t the only pretender Pepe has collected this season, as there are other teams like Chelsea and Juventus trying to acquire the services of the Portuguese defender.
However, even if Pepe needs Manchester United in order to get some minutes with another great team, the Red Devils don’t actually need Pepe, as the Portuguese player is a great defender when healthy, but he is not the kind of player United needs to supply security on defense.
Along these years we have seen all the faces Pepe can show, as he’s been one of the most polemic defenders in recent history given his not so clean tackles, but he has also shown great serenity when his team has needed him the most.
Nevertheless, Pepe has been really injury prone in the past seasons, and given the rise of Varane and the outstanding level of Sergio Ramos, the Portuguese has seen his playing time really diminished in the last couple of seasons, so he’s not in the best shape of his career right now.
Mourinho’s known for giving his compatriots and friends a lot of playing time even if that’s not the best for the team, as he done several seasons ago with Fabio Coentrao even if Marcelo was clearly a better option for Real Madrid, so that could be a great incentive for Pepe to reunite with his former boss.
Manchester United should avoid signing Pepe, as they actually have pretty decent depth at that position and Bailly’s injury isn’t expected to keep him sidelined for a very long time, so I guess we should go ahead and just skip this rumour.
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