Stade Rennais sporting director Florian Maurice revealed on Monday that the club’s move for Barcelona centre-back Samuel Umtiti (28) is “on stand-by.”
Speaking during Steve Mandanda’s (37) presentation as a Rennes player, which was transcribed by L’Équipe, Maurice denied disagreement with manager Bruno Genesio. “There is no disagreement (over the Umtiti transfer). We can not be in agreement over certain deals, but my exchanges with Bruno have always been the same and we have known each other for some time now so we can exchange calmly,” said Maurice.
He added, “This deal is on stand-by. We’re making progress on other solutions for the time being.” The club are looking to finalise Kim Min-jae’s (25) transfer from Fenerbahçe, whilst the club are also engaged in talks with Benfica over their centre-back Morato (21).
The club were interested in signing Barcelona’s injury-plagued centre-back, potentially on loan, but Genesio last week revealed that there were doubts within the club about the player’s physical state.
If the deal goes through, the World Cup winner will be teammates with Ghana’s Kamaldeen Sulemana who is already at Rennes.
