Carlos Baleba forced to delete social media post hours before Manchester United game
Carlos Baleba of Brighton & Hove Albion in action.(Image: (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images))Carlos Baleba has removed a social media post acknowledging transfer speculation linking him with Manchester United ahead of Brighton's visit to Old Trafford.The Seagulls face United in the Premier League on Saturday evening with all attention focused on Baleba.United welcome Fabian Hurzeler's side following two victories, with Ruben Amorim looking to maintain their newfound momentum. The hosts will also be keeping a close watch on Brighton midfielder Baleba, having been unsuccessful in their summer pursuit of him.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."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.And the edited version(Image: Instagram/@carlos_baleba)Carlos Baleba's deleted post(Image: Instagram/@carlos_baleba)"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."
