Man United urged to delay transfer decision on 28-year-old

Manchester United should not rush into a decision on whether or not to sign Marcel Sabitzer permanently.

That is the view of former Aston Villa and Liverpool attacker Stan Collymore, who believes the Red Devils should give the Austrian midfielder until the end of the season before deciding whether or not to make Bayern Munich an offer.

After falling out of favour with manager Julian Naglesmann, Sabitzer, 28, was allowed to leave Bayern Munich and join Man United on loan during last month’s transfer window. The midfielder’s switch, although on deadline day, was perfectly timed due to Christian Eriksen’s long-term injury.

Consequently, Sabitzer has been tasked with coming in and filling the void left by Eriksen and has so far done a good job.

However, despite a strong individual display against Leicester City, which saw the midfielder recover the ball more times than any other player on the pitch (11), Collymore believes the Red Devils should not rush into any future decisions.

“He’s played a handful of games for United and he’s improving,” Collymore said in an exclusive interview.

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“I thought he had a good game against Leicester City and that was echoed by the fact he made 11 ball recoveries, which was more than any other player on the pitch, but I still think United should wait before they even start thinking about a permanent deal.

“Sabitzer will know that Bayern Munich are probably looking to sell him so doing well at United may be his last chance to impress at a top, top club. For that reason, I think United would prefer to see how he does for the remainder of the season before making any knee-jerk decisions on whether or not they want to keep him and that’s testimony to how much the club has changed recently because not too many seasons ago, we’d have probably seen them already trying to wrap a deal up. Now it’s a case of them being a lot more stable and having a long-term plan, so credit to Erik Ten Hag for implementing that change of philosophy so quickly.”

Set to be out of contract with Bayern Munich in 2025 and clearly out of favour in Germany, failure to convince United to sign him permanently could result in a summer bidding war from other clubs for the 28-year-old.