Paris Saint-Germain manager Laurent Blanc has confirmed the club’s interest in Manchester United winger Angel Di Maria.
The Argentine international has struggled to adapt to English football since his arrival from Real Madrid for a club record fee of £59.7m last summer, as reported at the time by BBC Sport.
After initially showing the same form that helped Los Blancos clinch the Champions League title in the 2013-14 season, the 27-year-old failed to maintain those high standards thereafter.
Towards the end of last season he found himself behind the likes of Juan Mata and Ashley Young for a place in manager Louis van Gaal’s starting line-up and that prompted speculation that he would depart the club during the current transfer window.
Di Maria would quash those rumours shortly before heading off on international duty with Argentina for the Copa America tournament and insisted he would like to fight for his future at Old Trafford [via Sky Sports].
However, this has not stopped him being linked with various clubs in European and the Ligue 1 champions are certainly interested following comments from Blanc to French media outlet Le Parisien:
“Yes [I like him a lot]. We have our priorities,” the PSG boss admitted [via Star Sport].
“But to strengthen such a team you must target guys who are at big clubs and who are not easy to prise away.”
“That’s hardest for PSG. Di Maria, he’s good.”
“Competition is very, very tough. Don’t forget, Manchester United paid a fortune to sign him,” Blanc added.
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PSG are set to face competition from Bayern Munich and more surprisingly Arsenal in order to prize Di Maria away from Old Trafford, following reports in the media in the past week.
The Bundesliga outfit are reportedly keen to sign the former Madrid star and are understood to be willing to offer attacking midfielder Mario Gotze in exchange as they are reluctant to spend big on a player that underperformed last season [via ESPN].
Meanwhile, the Gunners emerged as shock contenders in the race to sign Di Maria [via Telegraph Sport] as manager Arsene Wenger is a known admirer of the player having tried to sign him on two separate occasions, once before he joined Madrid [via BBC Sport] and then again during the 2013 summer transfer window [via Telegraph Sport].
During the Copa America tournament, Di Maria did show signs of his returning to his very best as he scored twice in the 6-1 thrashing of Paraguay in the semi-finals, but it’s unclear as to where he will be plying his trade next season.