Manchester United agree deal for Carlos Baleba to continue midfield rebuild

JUST IN: Manchester United agree a deal worth an initial £65m for Brighton midfielder Carlos Baleba, with the 22-year-old set for a medical this weekend.

Sixty five million pounds. That's what Manchester United just agreed to pay Brighton for Carlos Baleba.

He's 22, Cameroonian, a proper defensive midfielder, and he's due for a medical in Manchester this weekend. Here he is in Brighton colours, the kind of player who breaks up play and lets everyone else breathe.

And here's the bit that made me smile. United tried to get him last summer and Brighton pointed at the Caicedo deal, the one hundred and fifteen million Chelsea paid, and said something like that. Twelve months later, sixty five million plus five in add-ons. Patience actually paid off at Old Trafford, which is not a sentence I get to say often.

Michael Carrick now has his third midfielder of the window, after Tielemans and Andrey Santos, and he keeps talking about the spine of the team. Total summer spend, one hundred and forty eight million, and almost every penny of it went through the middle. United fans have heard rebuild before. This one, at least, has a shape.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.