Manchester United are reportedly in pole position ahead of Barcelona and Manchester City to seal the transfer of Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt.
According to the Daily Mirror, the Red Devils have launched a £70million bid for the 19-year-old and look set to financially out-muscle Barcelona in any deal.
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This is because, according to the Mirror, the Catalan giants were not prepared to fork out a £12m agent fee to his representative Mino Raiola.
And while the report also names Man City as being in the running, they state that Man Utd are the club in pole position for De Ligt at the moment.
If MUFC pull this off it would truly be a game-changer for them, with the club needing a statement signing like this as part of a major rebuilding job under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this season.
Defence is also a major area of weakness in this United squad, with the club also linked in the tweet below with a strong interest in Napoli centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly:
#Napoli have rejected a #ManchesterUnited’s bid (€110M) for Kalidou #Koulibaly. De Laurentiis doesn’t sell him and the termination clause (€150M) will be valid only from 2020. #transfers #MUFC #mutd
— Nicolò Schira (@NicoSchira) May 20, 2019
If United get De Ligt, however, they will be beating their rivals to one of the most exciting young talents in the world.
The Netherlands international is already Ajax captain despite being a teenager, and has had a superb season to help the club win the Eredivisie title and reach the Champions League semi-finals against all the odds.
It will be interesting to see how this story develops, but it’s looking extremely promising for the Red Devils at the moment.