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Carlos Baleba deletes Man Utd social media post just hours before Brighton game
Oct 25 2025 13:38 · By Felix Keith/Senior Sports Reporter
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Carlos Baleba has deleted a social media post acknowledging transfer speculation around himself and Manchester United ahead of Brighton ’s trip to Old Trafford. The Seagulls play United in the Premier League on Saturday evening and all eyes will be on Baleba.
United host Fabian Hurzeler’s side on the back of two wins, with Ruben Amorim hoping to continue the new-found momentum. The home team will also have one eye on Brighton midfielder Baleba , having failed in an effort to sign him over the summer.
Brighton received interest from United in the Cameroon international, but the move didn’t gather pace, with their sky-high asking price successfully deterring rivals from pursuing him. They quoted a price north of £100million, with the £115m they landed from Chelsea for Moises Caicedo setting the bar high.
But Baleba reportedly remains keen to swap Brighton for United in the future and the opportunity to impress Amorim isn’t lost on him. Hurzeler had to answer questions about his midfielder in the pre-match press conference and likely won’t have been amused to see his Instagram post.
The 21-year-old shared a graphic showing himself and advertising to his followers the match on Saturday at 5.30pm with the caption “Coming to Old Trafford” with a crying laughing emoji. Aware that his words could land him in hot water, he quickly deleted it and re-posted without the sarcastic caption – but not before it was spotted by fans.
Baleba hasn’t been in the best of form this season but he was better in Brighton's 2-1 victory over Newcastle United last weekend to earn praise from his manager.
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“I saw a Carlos Baleba who stepped up,” Hurzeler told Sky Sports . “These were good actions and good behaviours he showed, but he has to make habits out of those good behaviours. That's the next step in his development, to bring consistency to his performance.
“For me, it's always important that I'm very transparent with the players. I have a very good relationship with Carlos. We speak regularly, we are in touch. I always share my thoughts about his development and my thoughts about his performance.”
Brighton are no strangers to bigger clubs trying to poach their players and know that Baleba will likely be on the agenda at the end of the season. “I don’t think Baleba was a saga,” Brighton chairman Tony Bloom told The Argus earlier this month.
“There was interest from Manchester United , and we said that he wasn’t available this summer and they went away. So we’ve had many bigger sagas in the past. But Carlos Baleba, his improvement has been immense. Massively important player to this football club, and just delighted that he’s with us for this season.”
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.