Ten Hag ‘will speak to’ €40m defender ‘shortly’ with Man Utd set to miss out two top targets

Manchester United have been told to pay at least €40million (£34.3m) for AS Monaco centre-back Axel Disasi, according to reports.

Disasi, 25, joined Monaco from Ligue 1 rivals Stade Reims for €13m in August 2020.

He has now made 129 appearances for his current club, including 38 in Ligue 1 last season.

Clearly a threat from set-pieces, Disasi has scored a fairly decent 12 goals for the French giants and is now attracting interest from the Premier League.

United have made the 25-year-old a top target and Ben Jacobs has claimed they will try to sign him or Nice’s Jean-Clair Todibo.

And according to French journalist Fabrice Hawkins, Monaco would be willing to ‘discuss’ the sale of their star defender for at least €40m.

Hawkins says Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag ‘will speak’ to the 25-year-old ‘shortly’ with no bid yet to be made.

It is added that Premier League rivals Arsenal and Chelsea are also ‘interested’.

Chelsea have now agreed to sell Kalidou Koulibaly to Al Hilal and despite the winter signing of Benoit Badiashile, from Monaco nonetheless, Mauricio Pochettino could look to sign a new central defender.

United’s interest in Disasi appears to have accelerated in recent days with a move for Napoli’s Kim Min-jae looking increasingly unlikely.

Bayern Munich are now in pole position to land the South Korean centre-back, who will be available for €60m in the first two weeks of July when a release clause in his contract becomes active.

Although they have not really been linked with him so far this summer, United look like they could miss out on Ajax defender Jurrien Timber as well.

Ten Hag was eager to sign Timber last summer but was unable to do so. The Dutch international was in attendance at this month’s FA Cup final between United and Manchester City, reigniting rumours he could be off to Old Trafford.

However, David Ornstein reported earlier this week, out of the blue might I add, that Arsenal have made a £30m bid for Timber, with Ajax holding out for closer to £50m.

And Sky Germany journalist Florian Plettenberg has said the 22-year-old ‘wants to join’ the Gunners and believes there is no current interest from United.

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