Manchester United will have Virgil van Dijk and Nathan Ake concerned if they can snare one of their top targets this summer. United are looking to strengthen in numerous areas during the first closed season with Sir Jim Ratcliffe in charge of football operations. Centre-back is a key priority and talks are believed to be underway over signing Bayern Munich defender Matthijs de Ligt, who played under Erik ten Hag at Ajax. Sky Sports Germany report that Ten Hag is “still a big fan” of the 24-year-old, who joined Bayern from Juventus for around £68million two years ago, and that talks are advancing. Juve, in turn, paid a similar amount to Ajax in the summer of 2019. The Bavarian giants are said to be willing to sell for the right price.
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De Ligt, currently with the Netherlands at Euro 2024, is highly rated by his Premier League-based teammates. As far back as 2019, when he was linked with Liverpool, he was touted as a star of the future by Van Dijk, who said: “He’s obviously an excellent defender, that’s clear. “He can still improve a lot and he realises that, but playing like he does at that age is fantastic and I’m really happy to play beside him [for the Netherlands].” More recently, Ake has sung De Ligt’s praises. The Manchester City defender compared him to Van Dijk, telling Goal: “De Ligt is still so young but he has played so many games in top-flight football and for the Dutch national team. It’s amazing what he is doing at the moment. “Everyone has full confidence in him. As you can see, he’s a great player. He’s quick, strong for his age, very good in the air and on the ball he is very good. He scores so many from set-pieces so he’s got a lot of the same attributes as Van Dijk.”
If United do manage to sign De Ligt, who is yet to appear at Euro 2024 with Ronald Koeman preferring a centre-back partnership of Van Dijk and Stefan de Vrij, then Van Dijk and Ake will know the quality of player United will be getting. Despite his lack of appearances in Germany, the 24-year-old is still widely considered a top central defender in Europe and made 30 appearances for Bayern Munich last season despite suffering several injuries. As well as the Holland international, United are also said to be looking to strike deals for Manuel Ugarte, Joshua Zirkzee and Jarrad Braithwaite this summer.
