Casemiro makes decision on Man Utd future after Saudi Arabia transfer links

Casemiro is planning to see out the rest of his contract at Manchester United despite falling down the pecking order under Ruben Amorim.The Brazilian midfielder returned to the starting line-up for United’s latest defeat away to Spurs on Sunday afternoon, his first appearance in the Premier League since December.

And with 18 months remaining on his deal the 32-year-old has said he would like to remain in Manchester despite firm interest from clubs in the Saudi Pro League.

As quoted by AS, Casemiro said: "Above all, I respect Manchester United, a club to which I'm very grateful. I have a year and a half left on my contract and I'd like to fulfil it here in Manchester.

“I'm comfortable here and so is my family. They've adapted, we speak English. I'm very grateful to the Old Trafford fans and to the club. I'm happy at club level."

Casemiro is one of the Premier League’s top earners, with a weekly pay packet of £350,000, and United remain eager to offload their big salary players to allow for a squad rebuild in the summer.

United were able to loan out Marcus Rashford, to Aston Villa, and Antony, to Real Betis, in the January transfer window to ease the short-term burden - both loan clubs are fronting up the majority of their significant salaries.

But Sir Jim Ratcliffe is planning to make further redundancies to the club’s non-football staff and Amorim said before the Spurs loss that he and the squad must shoulder the blame for those cuts.

He said: “Our team for a long period of time is not performing. We are buying players, spending money. And then we don’t have that return. So, it’s on us, these problems. People are losing their jobs so we have to acknowledge that. The biggest problem is the football - we’re not in the Champions League , so revenues aren’t the same.

“Everybody here knows it’s really hard on people who are losing jobs. The fans are always supporting us, they are amazing and we’re increasing ticket prices. We know that is our fault in the football department. We are responsible for that.

“It’s really important to not ignore that. So the only way to help is to win games, to go to the Champions League. Then you don’t fire a lot of people. So, we need to step up.”