text: Man Utd transfer news and rumours: 'Vidic retires, Twitter laughs at his Aston Villa links' - live - Telegraph
  Man Utd transfer news and rumours: 'Vidic retires, Twitter laughs at his Aston Villa links' - live
  Transfers: Live news, rumours and gossip for Man Utd in 2016
  2:31PM GMT 29 Jan 2016
  2016-01-29 14:59:06.0
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-united/12128375/Man-Utd-transfer-news-and-rumours-United-set-to-be-gazumped-in-race-for-long-term-target-Sadio-Mane-live.html?service=artBody
  • United bid £20m for Mane
  Not strictly a transfer rumour in this case but the confirmed lack thereof.
  A small sample of Telegraph readers rated Manchester United as the best destination for Nemanja Vidic once he was released by Inter Milan earlier this month.
  Alas, the titanic centre-half has chosen to retire at the age of 34.
  Vidic told the official Manchester United website: "The time has come for me to hang up my boots.
  — Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) January 29, 2016
  Vidic retires. What a player he was. Him and Ferdinand without question one of best centre back partnerships ever to play in this country
  — Danny Higginbotham (@Higginbotham05) January 29, 2016
  Twitter users, however, cited a potential alternative catalyst for Vidic's fateful decision.
  #Vidic would rather retire than come to the Villa #AVFC #MUFC #nemanja #manutd #football #premierleague
  — Anne - Marie (@ANNEMARIEsport) January 29, 2016
  Only days after being linked with the current Premier League crisis club Aston Villa, Vidic made public his decision. Some fans see more than mere coincidence in this sequence of events.
  £19m? You Musa be joking
  Manchester United are reportedly chasing CSKA Moscow striker Ahmed Musa, who has already been the subject of a bid from Leicester City.
  According to the Daily Express, United are looking to the 23-year-old to help solve their goalscoring problems and haul the club back into the Champions League qualification places.
  Musa was part of the CSKA Moscow side that played United in the Europe this year
  CSKA are said to be holding out for a fee of £18.9million, which would be much more in line with United's recent transfer outlays than with Leicester's.
  The Nigeria international can play anywhere along the front line but has a fairly modest record of seven goals and two assists from 24 starts this season.
  As their season continues to stagnate, Manchester United are set to be gazumped in their long pursuit of Southampton striker Sadio Mane, according to the venerable Brentwood Gazette.
  Ahead of their move to the Olympic Stadium - and retaining hopes that it will host Champions league football next season - West Ham are ready to make a move for the Senegalese forward who has scored 17 goals in 61 games for the Saints since his £11.8m move from Red Bull Salzburg in the summer of 2014. Let the bidding war commence...
  One man who won't be going anywhere any time soon is United's young Uruguayan right-back Guillermo Varela.
  Serie A side Genoa wish to take the 22-year-old on loan, but United's mounting injury list has put the brakes on that. Varela - the first signing of David Moyes' short-lived spell as manager - is yet to establish himself in the first-team set-up at Old Trafford and has featured only three times this season, including the defeat to Wolfsburg that dumped Louis van Gaal's side out of the Champions League.
  United's poor season under Van Gaal has - if reports in The Sun are to be believed - forced the club's heirarchy to consider appointing a director of football to oversee the Dutchman's operation.
  One man earmarked for the role is pictured above. No, not Roy Keane's best mate Gareth Southgate, but the FA's director of elite development Dan Ashworth. We look forward to The Class of 2022.