Brighton's Carlos Baleba 'has made his intentions clear' amid Manchester United interest

Baleba, 21, was a notable absentee from the matchday squad for the final pre-season friendly against Wolfsburg on Saturday (August 9).

The midfielder has not played for Brighton in the last four pre-season friendlies due to a knee injury, picked up during Albion’s training camp in Marbella.

The club remain adamant that he is not for sale.

However, in the unlikely event that the club changes its position, Baleba is said to be interested in the move.

Indykaila News on X (formerly Twitter) reported: “Firstly, a big shoutout to the reporter who reached out with this exclusive. Baleba wants out / personal terms agreed.

"Carlos Baleba has made his intentions clear, he's verbally asked Brighton to let him move to @ManUtd. And it gets even more interesting because Baleba’s agent has given the thumbs up on the personal terms offer if @OfficialBHAFC agrees to let him go this summer.

"Brighton at this moment have not nudge from their £100m valuation on the player.”

Indykaila News was the first account to report Manchester United’s concrete interest in the Albion star midfielder – and received acknowledgement for the exclusive from The Athletic’s David Ornstein.

Transfer expert Ornstein also spoke about the saga on The Athletic’s Week In Football show.

He said: “We reported that United, via intermediaries, had made contact with Brighton to explore the conditions of a potential deal for Baleba. He's a hell of a good player.

"First and foremost, Brighton have no intention to sanction his sale in the summer of 2025.

"I think they would like, and made clear in these conversations, that they want to keep him for at least another year.

"I think he's got three years left on his contract plus an option to extend by a further 12 months. He's been a great success so far and we've seen Brighton, they tend only to sell when they really want to and at the price they want to."

Brighton would want to achieve Moises Caicedo type money for their midfield talent and it’s unlikely Man United will stump up £100m plus this window.

Due to the finances involved, Ornstein said a transfer this summer ‘feels improbable to me, to many others and probably to those involved as well’.

He added: “It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that a player of his calibre, box to box and the legs and the youth and the quality he possesses, could transform that engine room.

"I'm sure it's something that Ruben Amorim would be in favour of. No doubt the player, any player, given that sort of opportunity in their career, it might appeal to them.

"We're not aware of him being unhappy at Brighton though, I've got to make clear. This feels improbable and that's the word we used in our report, but it doesn't stop situations being looked into.”

Andy Mitten – United We Stand editor and writer for The Athletic – said he doesn’t think that Baleba is an ‘absolute guarantee, purely for financial reasons’.

"I think if you say now to United, ‘do you want him?’ – that would be 'yeah',” Mitten added.

"If you said to the player, ‘do you want to join Man United?’ You would absolutely get a yes.

“You say to Brighton, you're going to give a player away for a nice cut-price deal, that is not happening, so compromise will be needed.

"Maybe some of Manchester United's players are attractive to Brighton, for example. With the players Manchester United are trying to move on, they'll likely to have to take a wage cut like Marcus Rashford did as well.

"And the agents as well, they'll have to take less than maybe they would have hoped for but this will all be trading. We'll see in the next few weeks."

Your next Albion read: Carlos Baleba absence for Brighton against Wolfsburg explained amid Man United latest