Manchester United are being linked with an audacious transfer move for Juventus centre-back Matthijs de Ligt....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
The Netherlands international is on the transfer market, but having been closely linked with Chelsea and especially Bayern Munich in recent times, the expectation was that he would be headed either to London or, more probably, Bavaria.
Nevertheless, Bild has reported that there has been a late move from the Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag, who wants to reunited with a player that he worked with at Ajax for a couple of year.
Why De Ligt to Man Utd makes sense
This continues the trend of the new Man Utd boss being linked with a string of players associated with the Eredivisie club this summer. While some of these rumours have doubtless been ill-founded, there appears to be a stronger basis for this report.
It arrives at a time whereby Man Utd have stalled in their efforts to capture Lisandro Martinez from Ajax. At the beginning of the week, there was optimism this transfer would have been completed by now, but the left-sided centre-back remains in Amsterdam as the Old Trafford side jet off for their pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia.
The sticking point in this transfer appears to be Ajax’s asking price for the player. The Eredivisie side are seeking more than €55 million for the Argentine, who is also attracting interest from Arsenal, while De Ligt would not cost too much more than that.
Ajax, it should be remembered, are under no financial pressure to sell. They have already offloaded Ryan Gravenberch to Bayern Munich and Sebastien Haller to Dortmund for big money this summer.
Meanwhile, De Ligt has certain advantages that make paying the extra premium on him worthwhile. For a start, he is a superior player to Martinez plus he is also a couple of years younger. With the Dutchman falling into the same price bracket as the Argentine, it now makes sense to sound out his availability.
Ajax’s hefty asking price for Martinez, then, is bad news for Chelsea and Bayern, whose free run at De Ligt is no longer certain.
