Erik ten Hag has confirmed that Manchester United have triggered contract extensions for four senior players.
Speaking to MUTV in an interview to be broadcast on Tuesday (via ManUtd.com), the manager responded to a question about Diogo Dalot, Fred, Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw.
The quartet all had contracts expiring in June but each had an optional extra year that the club could trigger.
““Yes, I can confirm it,” Ten Hag said.
“We are happy because the squad is going in the right direction and those players [have] a massive contribution in that direction.
“We want to develop, we want to support those players and we want them to keep in our process.
“So, that’s why we came to those decisions, I’m sure they are the right decisions.
“We want to construct a team for the future, so for longer years, and those players have to be part of it.”
Triggering the one year extension allows the club to continue paying the players at the old rate for another 12 months while a new deal is negotiated. Dalot and Rashford, especially, will be looking for significant increases on their current deals.
Another reason to trigger the extension is to ward off interest from other clubs. All four of the stars mentioned have been reported to be on the radar of some of Europe’s elite.
Dalot and Shaw are rumoured to be of interest to Barcelona and Rashford and Fred have been linked to PSG.
Another star who is in the same contract situation is David de Gea, but reports that the club are choosing not to exercise his extension along with the others appear to be true.
This is due to the excessive £375,000 per week salary on his current deal, which the club is reportedly trying to reduce in ongoing new contract negotiations.
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