Manchester United were believed to be interested in signing a central defensive midfielder last summer. Declan Rice was one of the players being heavily linked with the club. Following a stellar campaign in the Premier League with West Ham United and at EURO 2020 with the England national team, that should not come as any surprise. The likes of Chelsea and Manchester City have been linked with him recently as well.
West Ham United are believed to rate him at around £100 million though, which would make a move difficult for any club to pull off. While that is not an unheard of transfer fee in the modern day football transfer market, it is still a huge fee.
A move to Manchester United did not materialise for Rice despite the rumours. But even more interestingly, the Red Devils decided to end the summer without signing a defensive midfielder, which was a bit of a surprise.
It goes without saying that signing Rice would be considered as a huge coup for Manchester United. But considering the transfer fee that it might take to sign him as well as the interest of other clubs in his signature, the Red Devils must have alternative targets as well.
Manchester United make contact for alternative to Declan Rice
As tweeted out by Gianluigi Longari, Manchester United have made contact for Borussia Monchengladbach’s Denis Zakaria.
The 24-year-old midfielder has been drawing the attention of some of the biggest clubs in Europe. Other than Manchester United, Manchester City, Juventus, Inter Milan, FC Barcelona, AS Roma and Arsenal have also been linked with the youngster at one point or another.
Zakaria has made a fine start to the 2021/22 campaign in Germany. And there is no doubt that he is one of the most important players in Borussia Monchengladbach’s team right now, his current deal with the Bundesliga side is believed to run out next summer though.