Though Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his INEOS team have only this week had their partial takeover of Man United fully ratified, it appears that they’re wasting no time in attempting to target various players who can improve the squad for next season.
How the Red Devils perform in the summer transfer window will ultimately author how the squad begin the 2024/25 campaign at the very least.
As we’ve seen with Erik ten Hag’s preferred captures, they’ve been more of a hindrance than a help to him in the main, so it’s imperative that the club get things spot on this time around.
According to Sport BILD (h/t Fichajes), four of their potential targets all come from the same club; Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen.
It isn’t clear if the Spaniard will move on at the end of the current campaign, though with an eight-point lead over nearest pursuers, Bayern Munich, and just 14 games left to go, if Bayer were to win the Bundesliga title for the first time in their history, that would be an opportune time for Alonso to exit stage left.
That being the case, a number of players would be expected to follow him out of the exit door.
There’s no shortage of takers it seems for Jeremie Frimpong, Exequiel Palacios, Odilon Kossounou and Edmond Tapsoba, with United tracking all four.
Frimpong remains a priority capture and a €40m release clause shouldn’t break the bank.