Manchester United failed in a shock deadline day move to sign Manchester City full-back Rayan Ait-Nouri on loan and also missed out on Leicester City’s teenage midfielder Louis Page.
United have been trying to address a perceived weakness in Michael Carrick’s defence for the latter part of the transfer window.
Having opted against pursuing deals for Barcelona’s Alejandro Balde and Racing Santander’s Jorge Salinas, and the transfer deadline less than 12 hours away, United decided to check if a deal was possible for Algeria’s Ait-Nouri.
United sources say they were not interested in a permanent deal for Ait-Nouri and were told the only acceptable outcome for City would be a loan with an obligation to buy, which they rejected.
City sources said Ait-Nouri was staying with them.
Although Ait-Nouri has been on the bench for all three Manchester City games so far, he is yet to make an appearance and is third on the list of left-backs available to Enzo Maresca, behind Josko Gvardiol and Nico O’Reilly.
The 25-year-old cost £31m when he joined City from Wolves in June 2025. However, he only started 12 Premier League games and made 31 appearances overall in an underwhelming debut campaign for the club.
If City had agreed to the transfer, he could have been the first player to switch clubs for a transfer fee since Terry Cooke left United for £1m in January 1999.
In more recent times, Owen Hargreaves and, famously, Carlos Tevez joined City after their United contracts expired. City unveiled a memorable ‘Welcome to Manchester’ poster to mark Tevez’s arrival.
With Ait-Nouri staying where he is, 19-year-old Harry Amass will not be leaving.
Amass spent most of pre-season as back-up left-back to Luke Shaw.
However, he has not been chosen in Carrick’s squad for either Premier League game so far and it was expected he would take up one of the numerous offers to sign him on loan.
However, United’s failure to sign an experienced left-back means Amass will stay, even though he will probably be Carrick’s third choice given Noussair Mazraoui replaced Shaw during Sunday’s 5-2 win against Ipswich.
