{"id":621814,"date":"2023-01-31T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=621814"},"modified":"2023-01-31T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T21:30:00","slug":"stoke-city-seek-manchester-united-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/01\/31\/stoke-city-seek-manchester-united-defender\/","title":{"rendered":"Stoke City Seek Deal for Former Aston Villa Loanee and Manchester United Defender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe is being targeted by Stoke City as a replacement for Australian defender Harry Souttar, who nears a move to Leicester City on transfer deadline day.<\/p>\n<p>The Telegraph&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mcgrathmike\/status\/1620523409196339200?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike McGrath reports<\/a> the Potters&#8217; interest in Tuanzebe, who was brought up in Rochdale and went on to captain United against Rochdale in the League Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Tuanzebe, 25, hasn&#8217;t featured for the Red Devils since the Europa League final in 2021, which they lost to Villarreal.<\/p>\n<p>The central defender has made 37 appearances for the club and has struggled with injury in recent times.<\/p>\n<h2>Stoke City Seek Manchester United Defender Axel Tuanzebe as Harry Souttar Replacement<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Stoke trying for a deal to sign Axel Tuanzebe from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MUFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MUFC<\/a> as Harry Souttar puts the finishing touches to his \u00a315m move to Leicester <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SCFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SCFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LCFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#LCFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mike McGrath (@mcgrathmike) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mcgrathmike\/status\/1620523409196339200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 31, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Tuanzebe Proven at Championship Level<\/h3>\n<p>Tuanzebe is yet to claim a serious place in Manchester United&#8217;s defence under any manager but has proven his ability in defence. From being a starter for Aston Villa in the Championship to dealing with the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/12\/13\/neymars-brazil-career-the-end\/\" target=\"_self\">Neymar<\/a> and Kylian Mbappe under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for United, Tuanzebe&#8217;s talent is clear.<\/p>\n<p>Whether he can display the latter on a consistent basis is another matter though, and a move to Stoke City would likely see the fit-again defender showcase his skills more.<\/p>\n<p>Tuanzebe had three loans with Villa &#8211; two of which were in the Championship &#8211; and proved popular with the Villains before Steven Gerrard&#8217;s torrid reign as manager.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/01\/31\/manchester-united-houssem-aouar-after-sabitzer\/\" target=\"_self\">After Sabitzer: Manchester United Hold Discussions Over Shock Loan for \u00a317.5 Million Star Who Could Solve Their Problems<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tuanzebe has 30 Championship appearances to his name across two spells in the Midlands and then three in the play-offs as he helped guide Aston Villa back to the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>His third stint at Villa Park didn&#8217;t perhaps go as planned and was cut short by the defender&#8217;s desire to get out and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2022\/01\/05\/axel-tuanzebe-loaned-to-napoli-manchester-united\/\" target=\"_self\">join Napoli<\/a> in Serie A. Tuanzebe had struggled for a place following the-then appointment of Steven Gerrard, replacing Dean Smith, who had signed him.<br \/>\n<a id=\"H-0Ug6G4T1dTZNH3KX1K5A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1449379257\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'H-0Ug6G4T1dTZNH3KX1K5A',sig:'JAxHRD0A_OXnXixPjBJT8YGvx4o67mKNnzrgJbw5mCU=',w:'594px',h:'343px',items:'1449379257',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Tuanzebe made just two appearances for Napoli, seemingly signed as a substitute option and struggling with injury for a couple of months.<\/p>\n<p>Stoke City sit 18th in the Championship and are no doubt looking to improve on that place and one day revisit their Premier League heights.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe is being targeted by Stoke City as a replacement for Australian defender Harry Souttar, who nears a move to Leicester City on transfer deadline day. The Telegraph&#8217;s Mike McGrath reports the Potters&#8217; interest in Tuanzebe, who was brought up in Rochdale and went on to captain United against Rochdale in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3469,"featured_media":621820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,32,18,7188,21],"tags":[3947],"class_list":["post-621814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-championship","category-league-football","category-manchester-united","category-rumours","category-stoke","tag-axel-tuanzebe"],"modified_by":"Jordan Hackett, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3469"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}