{"id":1132603,"date":"2020-02-20T17:44:18","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T17:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1132603"},"modified":"2020-02-20T17:44:18","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T17:44:18","slug":"salomon-rondon-really-close-manchester-united-january","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/salomon-rondon-really-close-manchester-united-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Salomon Rondon: I &#8220;was really close&#8221; to joining Manchester United in January"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Former Newcastle and West Brom striker\u00a0Salomon Rondon has made the astonishing admission that he came within a whisker of securing a move to Manchester United last month.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was actively in the market for frontline reinforcements during the January transfer window after\u00a0Marcus Rashford sustained a\u00a0<span>double stress fracture in his back, which could rule him out for the season.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Was Rondon close to joining Man Utd? Five things to know&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Solskjaer sought to bring in a new striker last month following an injury picked up by Rashford.<\/li>\n<li>The England international suffered a back injury in mid-January and could potentially miss the season.<\/li>\n<li>The likes of\u00a0Edinson Cavani were linked with a move but Man Utd settled on Odion Ighalo.<\/li>\n<li>The ex-Watford striker has signed a six-month loan deal from\u00a0<span>Shanghai Greenland Shenhua.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Rondon has since revealed he came &#8220;really close&#8221; to sealing a move instead of\u00a0Ighalo.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"background-color: transparent; display: block; padding: 0; max-width: 700px;\" title=\"Audioboom player\" src=\"https:\/\/embeds.audioboom.com\/posts\/7494632\/embed\/v4\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Norwegian coach has since conceded the England international\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/solskjaer-rashford-touch-go-feature-man-utd-this-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">may not play for the club again this campaign<\/a>, which will seriously jeopardise his chances of featuring for Gareth Southgate&#8217;s side in the Euros.<\/p>\n<p>The initial diagnosis quickly ruled Rashford out for at least three months, meaning\u00a0Solskjaer had to turn his attention to the market, with several strikers finding their names associated with a move to Old Trafford.<\/p>\n<p>Among those were unlikely duo\u00a0<span>Odion Ighalo and Salomon Rondon, who both left the\u00a0Premier League for China in recent seasons, but it was the former who secured a move back to these shores.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Odion Ighalo is the first ever Nigerian player to appear for Man Utd in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>?? Super Eagle ? Red Devil ? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IqaYiNIUVN\">pic.twitter.com\/IqaYiNIUVN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Squawka (@Squawka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Squawka\/status\/1229523935252942848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 17, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span>Ighalo secured a loan move to Man Utd for the remainder of the season from\u00a0Shanghai Greenland Shenhua, while\u00a0Rondon has remained at\u00a0Dalian Professional, though his path could have been so much different he claims.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was all out of my hands,&#8221; the 30-year-old told <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.co.uk\/1619457\/2020\/02\/20\/salomon-rondon-newcastle-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means a lot to be linked with\u00a0Manchester United\u00a0because they have a great history and it must mean they think I did well in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey started to talk to my agent and I was just waiting by my phone for a decision, maybe for the lawyers, but then I saw Ighalo had signed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It didn\u2019t get to the stage where an offer was made or anything like that, but I think it was really close.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sancho, Haaland, Hakimi &amp; Brandt | Meet Borussia Dortmund&#039;s Fantastic Four\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OpOpxJuRT0U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC_QgsfA8W1TdLADOz0txpTg?sub_confirmation=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Rondon: I&#8217;m happy for Ighalo<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Since leaving English football for the\u00a0<span>Chinese Super League, Rondon has scored five goals in 12 matches for his new club, picking up from where he left off on Tyneside, where his efforts yielded 12 goals and seven assists for\u00a0Newcastle last season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Pushed further on whether a failed move to Man Utd has been a cause of frustration, Rondon swatted away such a suggestion, and instead outlined his glee for the club&#8217;s new marksman.<\/p>\n<p>He added:\u00a0&#8220;It\u2019s just football.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s decisions again and they obviously decided Ighalo was the best decision for them. I\u2019ve played against him and I\u2019m pleased for him.<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;All I can do is keep working. I\u2019m concentrating on Dalian, on working and learning and listening to the manager. After that, we will have to wait and see. You just never know in this game.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Newcastle and West Brom striker\u00a0Salomon Rondon has made the astonishing admission that he came within a whisker of securing a move to Manchester United last month. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was actively in the market for frontline reinforcements during the January transfer window after\u00a0Marcus Rashford sustained a\u00a0double stress fracture in his back, which could rule&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1132604,"parent":0,"menu_order":3089,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Salomon Rondon has made the astonishing admission that he came within a whisker of securing a move to Manchester United last month.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1132603","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Salomon Rondon: I &quot;was really close&quot; 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