Manchester United spent heavy sums to strengthen their back-line last summer and as per recent reports, they are once again linked with a defender.
According to Sport, Man Utd are one of the most interested clubs in signing Samuel Umtiti and they have made contact with his representatives. It is stated that Barcelona are looking to get 50 million euros (£44million) from the sale of the Les Bleus center half.
Transfer: Determined Man Utd would be ready to offer £71million to agree signing – Report
The famous Spanish media outlet have claimed that the Red Devils face competition from Premier League clubs like Chelsea and Arsenal, who also want the French international to solidify their defense.
Umtiti proved to be a major hit with the Catalan giants in his first season at the Nou Camp after leaving Lyon. However, in the past couple of campaigns, he has mostly been on the treatment table.
In such a scenario, the 26-year-old, who played a pivotal part in helping France win the World Cup in 2018, has fallen down the pecking order and the likes of Lenglet and Pique have mostly started in the central defense for the Spanish champions.
In the current campaign, so far, the ex Ligue 1 defender has only started 9 La Liga games for Barca and missed 10 fixtures in all competitions due to injury concerns.
Last summer, Man Utd made Harry Maguire the most expensive defender in the world. Moreover, we did pay a lot of cash to sign right back Wan-Bissaka as well and the English duo have largely improved our back-line.
So, I do not think that we should spend £44million to sign a defender, who has been highly injury prone. Instead, Solskjaer should spend wisely to improve other key departments in the summer transfer window.
ManU needs another defensive player, another midfielder, and a bonafide striker in the summer transfer, in order to challenge for the championship next year, period. Now, who that might be is anyone’s guess.