Manchester United Signs Carlos Baleba for £70m
Manchester United have pushed their summer rebuild up a gear, completing the signing of Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba in a deal worth up to £70m (€81m).
The Cameroon international becomes the third midfielder through the door at Old Trafford in this window, following Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans. It is a clear statement: United are tearing into the heart of their team and rebuilding it with energy, legs and technical security.
Baleba’s rise at Brighton turned heads across the league, and United have now paid a premium to secure him. The fee reflects not just what he is now, but what they believe he can become in the engine room over the next decade.
Celtic cruise, Scales waits
Elsewhere, Celtic are back in Champions League qualifying action tonight, taking on LASK with a commanding 3-0 lead from the first leg. It should be a night for calm heads rather than nerves.
Liam Scales starts on the bench, watching on as his teammates look to finish the job and move one step closer to the group stages.
Parrott’s Betis moment on hold
In Spain, all eyes are on the Mestalla and one Irish striker who has traded English football for something very different.
Troy Parrott, fresh from signing for Real Betis from AZ Alkmaar last week, is in line for a possible La Liga debut away to Valencia at 8pm. The hat-trick hero from Budapest has carried a growing sense of intrigue with him to Seville.
For now, though, he waits.
Parrott does not start. Cucho Hernández keeps his place through the middle after an 11-goal La Liga season that gives him serious credit in the bank.
Betis line up as follows: Valles; Ortiz, Gomez, Llorente, Firpo; Fornals, Bernal, Deossa; Antony, Hernández, Riquelme.
Antony is nailed down on one flank, Rodrigo Riquelme on the other. That wide pairing leaves only one central berth to fight for, and Hernández currently owns it. That is the role Parrott must wrench away if he wants to become a regular starter. Still, that battle surely beats another slog in the Championship with West Ham.
Betis, who are in the Champions League this season and opened their league campaign with a win over Real Sociedad courtesy of a Riquelme goal, have not exactly been playing down the excitement.
The club’s social media team have leaned into the buzz, posting twice about Parrott in the space of five minutes: one image of his pristine No 19 jersey, another of a young fan holding a flag with the message, “what’s the craic Troy?” The hype has travelled.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini has kept his words measured but positive.
“Troy has not been working with us for a long time,” he said. “He joined us only a day before the last game. But he has been working hard and he is on the list because he is ready to play.”
Ready, but not yet unleashed.
Forsaking England, finding himself
Parrott’s decision to step away from English football has already reshaped his career. As Gavin Cooney has detailed, leaving the Premier League bubble for the Netherlands allowed the Dubliner to breathe, to play, and to grow.
“Forsaking English football has been the making of Parrott,” Cooney wrote, capturing the essence of a young striker who chose development over hype.
Once he settled in the Eredivisie, Parrott spoke with striking clarity about why he had to get out. The tempo and style of Dutch football suited him, and he escaped the glare that had followed him since his teenage years.
“Trying to live up to the hype at such a young age, it was never going to happen that early because football isn’t so easy,” he said in 2024. “For me it was more about growing up a bit and trying to block out the noise.”
Tonight in Valencia, he is back in the noise. A new league, a Champions League club, a fanbase already waving flags with his name on them.
He starts on the bench. He may only get a late cameo.
But if this is the next step in the journey that took him from England to the Netherlands and now to Betis, how long before that No 19 shirt becomes a fixture in Pellegrini’s front line?
