Manchester United have agreed personal terms with Manu Kone and have spoken to his agents, but no offer has reached AS Roma, who need a sale by Friday to stay inside their UEFA settlement.
AS Roma have until Friday 31 July to raise roughly 50m euros in player sales. That figure is not a preference. It comes from the settlement agreement they signed with UEFA after breaching financial rules in 2021-22, and Manu Kone is the most valuable asset they can move to meet it.
Manchester United know all of this. They have known it for a fortnight. They have agreed personal terms with Kone in principle and they have spoken to his representatives. What they have not done is contact AS Roma.
Fabrizio Romano put it plainly on 26 July. Manchester United spoke to the agents, he reported, but they are yet to reach out to AS Roma because they have not decided which player they want as their defensive midfielder. That is the whole story in one sentence. The block is not the fee and it is not the player's willingness. It is that Manchester United have not finished making up their minds.
The shortlist is still four or five names deep. Aurelien Tchouameni and Eduardo Camavinga at Real Madrid, Carlos Baleba at Brighton, Alex Scott and Tyler Adams at Bournemouth. Kone sits among them rather than above them, which is a strange place for a player whose selling club is under a deadline nobody else on that list is under.
David Ornstein called Kone a great market opportunity for Manchester United on 15 July. Two weeks later the opportunity is still open, which tells you either that Manchester United do not share his reading, or that they do and have not acted on it.
There is a second thread worth naming carefully. La Gazzetta dello Sport report that Marcus Rashford could be written into the deal to bring AS Roma's price down. That is one outlet, and it is worth treating as one outlet. AS Roma are reported to want around 60m euros with Manchester United closer to 50m, and Rashford's wages are the reason a loan with a contribution would suit AS Roma better than an outright purchase.
There is also competition. Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and Al-Ahli have all been credited with interest, though none of them have moved either.
What happens by Friday is now a question about AS Roma more than about Manchester United. A club that has to sell, and a buyer in no hurry, is not a negotiation. It is a countdown. If nobody bids, Kone reports back to Trigoria for pre-season as an AS Roma player and the Italian club has a hole in its accounts it has to fill somewhere else.