Manchester United need to strengthen in several positions right now. One of them has to be centre-back. The club had signed Raphael Varane from Real Madrid last summer and there were hopes that he would be the one to transform the Red Devils’ backline. That did not turn out to be the case though as the French World Cup winner struggled with form and fitness throughout the season.
On the other hand, Harry Maguire went through a poor campaign, and the likes of Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly and Phil Jones were not particularly impressive either. Thus, it would not be a surprise if Erik ten Hag targets another centre-back this summer.
Manchester United have already been linked with Jurrien Timber and Lisandro Martinez, but there is another former Ten Hag favourite who appears to be interesting the Red Devils.
As tweeted out by Christian Falk, Manchester United are interested in Matthijs de Ligt and contacted his management, but at the moment, it looks like the Dutch international is concentrating on Bayern Munich:
TRUE✅ Also @ManUtd is interested in Matthijs de Ligt (22) and contacted his management. The agents let United know that at the moment they just talk with Bayern. De Ligt wants to see if Munich find an agreement with @juventusfc
— Christian Falk (@cfbayern) July 7, 2022
Massive De Ligt to Manchester United transfer update
De Ligt was a key part of the Ajax team under the management of Ten Hag, who reached the UEFA Champions League semi-finals some years back.
After that, he would end up moving to Juventus but there, his career has not quite taken off as was expected to. But De Ligt has been pretty decent in Turin and there are still hopes that he could end up becoming one of the best defenders in Europe over the next few years. The Dutchman is still just 22 years of age.
It remains to be seen how things turn out in the De Ligt saga with Chelsea also believed to be pushing for the defender, having seen Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen walk out as free agents this summer.