Said something similar when the original bid went in, doesn’t exactly speak of being their top target / first choice player or even that they’re that bothered, especially with the speed the De Ligt stuff came out.
All comes back to that crusty old lizard thinking anyone would fall over themselves to play for Utd, despite the absolute state they’re in.
Yeah this isn’t like when a manager says ‘I must have this player he’s boss!’
What’s happened here is they identified a list of defenders and then their money guy ruled out the ‘known to be too expensive’ targets and then started at the top of the list and worked down. For some reason, they clearly didnt know
Branthwaite is worth far more than their budget. When they did know, they immediately moved onto the next on the list
Not like, for example, when Ancelotti said he had to get James in and we made sure we got our man and made him feel loved.