Manchester United are reportedly monitoring Antonio Rudiger’s situation as the transfer saga involving the Chelsea centre-back takes yet another twist.
It had looked for some time like Rudiger would be leaving Chelsea in the summer, with the Germany international in the final few months of his contract at Stamford Bridge.
But then Chelsea fans were given a reason to have hope over keeping one of their most important players, with the reliable Christian Falk tweeting that the former Roma man was now keen to stay with the Blues after holding more positive talks over a new deal.
See Falk’s tweet from last month below for details…
TRUE? @ToniRuediger would like to stay at @ChelseaFC. After a first disappointing offer now Club and Player are in better talks @PSG_inside @realmadrid @FCBayern pic.twitter.com/rJFAqYhmOv
— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) January 12, 2022
It now seems, however, that Rudiger is now perhaps leaning again towards leaving Chelsea, with the Daily Mail mentioning Man Utd as one of the teams keeping close tabs on his situation.
The 28-year-old could be a superb signing for the Red Devils, who would surely benefit from an upgrade on unconvincing defensive players like Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly, while even Raphael Varane hasn’t quite got going at Old Trafford yet.
Speaking to CaughtOffside last month, former United player Luke Chadwick admitted that Rudiger looked like he could be an ideal signing for his former club.
“Rudiger is the sort of defender United need at the moment,” Chadwick said. “He’s improved so much over the last 18 months in terms of his ball carrying, he’d add a lot to this United squad.”
He added: “He’s shown this season that he’s one of the top central defenders in the Premier League, albeit playing three at the back as Thomas Tuchel does at Chelsea.
“But I’m sure he could do a job at United, because defensively it’s not been right there for a while now. New faces can bring the best out of others and improve competition.
“Obviously Varane came in and has suffered with injuries, Maguire’s out at the moment … I think you can never have too many good players and the competition is what you need.”