Chris Smalling omitted from Manchester United squad again as club refuse to accept Roma offer

Chris Smalling is once more not in the Manchester United match squad, this time for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie against Luton Town, with his club refusing to accept an offer from Roma that would bring to an end the summer-long stalemate over the defender’s future.

Smalling was scheduled to train early on Tuesday morning on his own at Carrington and again on Tuesday afternoon at 2pm as he continues his pre-season separate from the main group of first-team players who have travelled south for the game. He has been assigned a squad number at United but he wants the club to reach agreement with Roma for a permanent transfer, where he spent a successful loan last season.

The asking price from United is thought to be around £20 million to £25 million, which is out of Roma’s reach currently – with the Italian club pointing out that Smalling was considered surplus to requirements last summer. The 30-year-old is one of eight centre-halves currently considered nominally part of the first team group at United. After the signing of Harry Maguire last summer Smalling was told he could leave to clear space in the first-team squad, and the wage budget. He did so willingly on loan despite having signed a new contract until 2022 just 18 months previously.

Now that Smalling is keen to make that move permanent, United have been unable to agree a deal for a player who has in excess of 300 appearances for the club over 10 years and is eager to pursue his career as a first-team regular at Roma rather than on the bench at Old Trafford. He missed two days’ training over Sept 8 and 9 as the club discussed his departure but nothing was resolved and since then he has been training alone with a club physiotherapist. He was not in the squad for Saturday’s defeat to Crystal Palace.

The Carabao Cup third-round tie at Kenilworth Road presents an odd challenge for Solskjaer who needs game-time for his under-conditioned first-team players but also has fringe players who need matches. United played just a single friendly – against Aston Villa – before being pitched into Saturday’s season opener against Palace. They face a difficult game away to Brighton this Saturday.

Solskjaer told the United official website that his players needed “four or five games” to get up to the required standard. “We’ll make some changes, of course we will,” he said. “For some, it’s the pre-season and, for some, they’ve only been here for a week now, for different reasons. Some of them need game-time, they do and we can see we’re lacking in sharpness. We just need to make the most of the training sessions and games we have.”