According to rumours in the British press, Manchester United has agreed to buy a youngster from Brighton & Hove Albion.
The Red Devils have “got a deal in place” to bring the 18-year-old to Old Trafford, according to the Daily Mail. The teenager excelled during a trial with the Red Devils.
Collyer, who is mostly a midfielder, featured for the Red Devils’ Under-23 team in a friendly against Huddersfield Town last month and “suitably satisfied” the club’s coaching staff, according to the article.
According to the report, the teenager has signed to a three-and-a-half-year contract with Manchester United before being officially unveiled as a Red Devils player.
Collyer has only played for Brighton’s Under-18 team once this season, in August.
Over the weekend, Italian writer Fabrizio Romano backed up the rumours of a deal for Manchester United to recruit Collyer, reporting that the club had achieved a “complete agreement” for the move.
Posting on Twitter, Romano wrote: “Manchester United have reached full agreement to sign talented midfielder Toby Collyer [born in 2004] from Brighton for their youth team. Collyer has already captained England youths team.”
Meanwhile, interim coach Ralf Rangnick has cautioned that his team’s chances of finishing in the top four this season are very slim.
In Sunday’s derby showdown at The Etihad, his Manchester United team were defeated 4-1 by Manchester City, allowing Arsenal to go above them in the Premier League rankings as the season draws to a close.
Rangnick told his post-match news conference on Sunday: “I didn’t actually expect Arsenal to lose at Watford so for us it’s clear, if we still want to have a chance to finish fourth at the end of the season, we can almost not drop anymore points, and we also know that in those 10 games that we have to play, there are a few other difficult ones so let’s take it game by game.
“For us, it’s important we keep developing the team, which we did in the last couple of months, and then make sure we can win the next two home games against Tottenham and against Atletico, two very important games for us to come.”