A bolt from the blue to rejuvenate Manchester United’s midfield? A clever market opportunity to help bolster the ranks? Or a budget deal to avoid panic later in the transfer window?
What’s to be made of Andrey Santos, who is edging towards joining United from Chelsea in a deal initially worth £48million ($64.4m)?
The 22-year-old Brazilian midfielder has had an unconventional time in English football, including making 43 appearances for Chelsea across the 2025-26 campaign under three different head coaches.
Here is a cheat sheet explaining what he might offer United head coach Michael Carrick and his backroom staff if he moved to Old Trafford.
What is Andrey Santos good at?
He may be young, having turned 22 in May, but Santos plays with a cool, wise head. For much of his time playing for Chelsea, he helped bring balance to a midfield that threatened to become lopsided due to the attacking forays of Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.
To put it plainly, he’s a steady player.
Santos’ approach to the game contains mild thrills and minimal spills.
Last season, he was most commonly seen making quick movements in the early build-up to free up Caicedo whenever possible. He was fond of staggering the midfield, offering himself as an easy pass if Chelsea’s defence found themselves in a pinch.
He’s a good one-touch passer and doesn’t get flustered with a defender breathing down his neck.
If you’re the sort of football fan who bemoans a team’s lack of movement when looking to get the ball forward, having Santos in the team should calm your viewing experience. He is someone who makes an effort to make himself available for a pass, and is good at indicating to team-mates that they need to redirect things to work around an opposition block.
He is sensible and efficient when distributing the ball and thrives when making short passing combinations with like-minded individuals.
In addition, he’s shown promise passing into the final third when a good opportunity to do so presents itself. Take this excellent through ball to Marc Cucurella against Nottingham Forest…
Santos has a good eye for a through ball, but prefers to exploit pre-existing errors in the opposition’s shape, rather than forcing the issue himself. The high-risk/high-reward passes that are a staple of Bruno Fernandes, Adam Wharton and others are not a huge part of his repertoire, at least for now.
That Santos ranked among some of the best midfielders in the Premier League for line-breaking passes last season is promising.
He is a player who could be encouraged to take more risks and help create something out of nothing when passing. Training alongside Fernandes at United could help in this regard. However, playing deeper than the club’s captain in Premier League matches would mean his judicious approach to passing could be a nice bonus, rather than something to be improved upon immediately.
When out of possession, Santos is a decent ball-winner, and reliable when looking to intercept passes played through midfield. He is not an all-action disruptor in the way departing countryman Casemiro was for United or fellow midfield target Ederson is, but he offers a secure defensive presence in matches.
Santos’ 18 months on loan at Strasbourg saw him score 10 Ligue 1 goals in the 2024-25 season, popping up on set pieces to help Liam Rosenior’s side. His presence in and around the penalty box will need some work to approach the final-third offerings of Casemiro and make him a genuine goal threat in the Premier League.
In a summer window that has seen 21-year-old Mateus Fernandes move from West Ham United to Tottenham Hotspur for £85million, a near £50m deal for this six-cap Brazil international can be read as astute business.
Santos is an intelligent player with lots of potential, and United nabbing him from a ‘Big Six’ rival would be the sort of clever deal that can keep them agile and competitive elsewhere in the summer transfer market.
What in his game needs more work?
Santos is a player who can be quietly impressive on a good day, but he’ll need help making his skills louder and more pronounced.
There are reasons for United to be confident about signing a young midfielder with plenty of potential, but for the Brazilian to best maximise himself, they will have to go back into the market for an athletic defensive-stalwart type as a partner. His positioning and match-reading ability mean he’d be a useful safety blanket for whatever out-of-possession scheme Carrick would place him in next season.
The United head coach may choose to continue with the style of play we saw from April onwards, with Kobbie Mainoo responsible for early build-up and the team looking to pass around the opposition press, but the squad still lacks a long-legged firefighter who can make decisive tackles and stop counter-attacks when games get stretched and chaotic. United need someone who has the pace and presence to make a 30-yard recovery run and stop a cutback cross when needed.
At 22, Santos will need consistent game time. That looked unlikely to happen at Chelsea, with him behind Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and on occasion, Reece James in the defensive-midfield queue. Twenty-five of his 43 appearances last season were starts. Only 13 of those 25 came in the Premier League. He started four of the five games on Chelsea’s run to the FA Cup final but was then an unused substitute in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester City at Wembley as caretaker head coach Calum McFarlane preferred to pair James with Caicedo at the base of midfield.
| Competition | Appearances | Starts | Total Minutes Played |
|---|---|---|---|
Premier League | 27 | 13 | 1255 |
Champions League | 6 | 3 | 306 |
League Cup | 5 | 5 | 435 |
FA Cup | 5 | 4 | 414 |
United could be a settled football environment for him to find his feet and get better accustomed to the challenges of Premier League and Champions League football. Potential is the expression of a possibility. Carrick and his coaching staff would be getting an exciting prospect who needs to be shaped.
Would Santos feature in Carrick’s best XI for 2026-27?
Possibly. There is plenty to suggest Santos could be an important player for club and country for many years, keeping things ticking along from the base of midfield with many a tidy display. In the present day, he would need help to become a weekly starter for United.
His sensible approach to ball progression makes him a good fit next to Mainoo, which would allow the Englishman to get forward and affect play in the final third with greater regularity. That neither of them has outstanding recovery pace means United would have issues when transitioning back into defence if they were to lose the ball in the final third.
Santos’s signing, if it happens, could not be considered good or bad until the summer window closes on September 1, when we’d have a clear idea of who he might share playing time and pitch space with.
His mooted arrival should not be the end of United’s spending on midfielders, and whoever else would be recruited will have to be identified for their ability to reduce pressure on Santos, Mainoo and others.
United are moving smartly to try to sign a promising young midfielder who is efficient with his actions on both sides of the ball. For Santos to thrive in the red shirt, he would need playing time, but also to be paired with someone aggressive, decisive and capable of covering large areas of the pitch at pace.
Santos moving to Old Trafford would be a welcome piece of new furniture as United renovate their midfield home, but the living room still lacks a centrepiece for everything to be placed around.
