Erik ten Hag has confirmed that Manchester United have activated contract extensions for four senior players.
Speaking to MUTV in an interview to be broadcast on Tuesday (via ManUtd.com), the manager answered a question about Diogo Dalot, Fred, Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw.
The foursome had contracts that expired in June, but each had an optional additional year that the club could activate.
“Yes, I can confirm that,” Ten Hag said.
“We are happy because the squad is on the right track 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 stay in our process.
“So that’s why we made those decisions, I’m sure they are the right decisions.
“We want to build a team for the future, for more years, and those players have to be part of it.”
Activating the one-year extension allows the club to continue paying players at the previous rate for another 12 months while a new deal is negotiated. Dalot and Rashford, especially, will be looking for significant increases to their current deals.
Another reason to activate the extension is to avoid the interest of other clubs. The aforementioned four stars have been reported to be on the radar of some members of the European elite.
Dalot and Shaw are rumored to be of interest to Barcelona and Rashford and Fred have been linked to PSG.
Another star who finds himself in the same contract situation is David de Gea, but reports that the club are opting not to pursue his extension along with the others appear to be true.
This is due to the excessive salary of £375,000 per week on his current contract, which the club are reportedly seeking to reduce in ongoing new contract negotiations.
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