Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho appears to have taken it to himself to lure defender Samuel Umtiti from Barcelona at the end of the season. The France international is supposedly one of United’s prime targets for the summer amid his relatively affordable buy-out clause of £52m.
According to Sport, Mourinho has made a personal effort to convince Umtiti to join United by assuring him that the club would be willing to meet his wage demands of £7.9m-a-year.
Umtiti has been an influential performer for Barcelona over the past 20 months with 76 appearances across all competitions, but the Spanish club are said to be reluctant to double his present salary.
As a result, Sport claims that the Frenchman is ‘distancing himself’ from the Catalan giants, who are seemingly looking into a potential replacement for the former Lyon graduate.
Umtiti is a top-quality defender with his passing and concentration levels being among his key strengths, and it appears United could push through a £52m deal with Mourinho in regular contact with the defender.
However, any deal is likely to coincide with potential exits from the club, and the likes of Matteo Darmian, Daley Blind and Luke Shaw could be offloaded to recoup funds for Umtiti’s switch.
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