Man Utd: Ratcliffe ‘wants’ £129m duo to lead ‘rebuild’ and will ‘carry out an offensive soon’
New Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants Barcelona duo Frenkie de Jong and Alejandro Balde to help lead his ‘rebuild’ at Old Trafford, according to reports.
The British billionaire completed a deal to buy 25 per cent of the Premier League club from the Glazers last month with Ratcliffe now in charge of the football operation as part of the agreement.
Ratcliffe lines up summer transfers at Man Utd
Ratcliffe has already brought in Omar Berrada as the club’s new CEO, while he is trying to persuade Newcastle to agree a compensation fee so that Dan Ashworth can become their new sporting director.
Previous reports have also indicated that the new Man Utd co-owner wants Crystal Palace’s Dougie Freedman as their new head of recruitment and Southampton’s Jason Wilcox as technical director.
Ratcliffe has wasted no time in lining up the staff he wants under him at Man Utd and now he’s looking to solidify some of his transfer targets too for the summer ahead.
The Red Devils have had an underwhelming season under Erik ten Hag with Man Utd finishing bottom of their Champions League group and struggling for consistency in the Premier League.
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And now Spanish publication Nacional has revealed that Ratcliffe is set to go after Barcelona duo De Jong and Balde in the summer in an attempt to revive the Red Devils’ fortunes.
Ratcliffe ‘hopes to rebuild’ Man Utd and he ‘wants’ the Barcelona pair to lead that with De Jong the ‘least surprising’ target out of the two.
Barcelona will ‘consider selling’ the Netherlands international in an attempt to raise money for summer transfers and Man Utd will also ‘carry out an offensive soon’ for Balde, who ‘has been one of the disappointments of the current campaign’.
The Catalan giants ‘will ask for more than €150m (£129m)’ for the pair from Man Utd with Balde valued at €60m and De Jong priced at €90m.
Giorgio Scalvini to Man Utd this summer?
Reliable Italian journalist Matteo Moretto has also brought news of Man Utd interest in Atalanta centre-back Giorgio Scalvini.
Moretto wrote in his Caught Offside column: “Recently I was informed that in the past few weeks scouts from Manchester United were present in Italy to watch Atalanta central defender Giorgio Scalvini on multiple occasions. He’s a profile that they like, there are other teams in England that also like him, and Manchester United clearly have a shortlist of various options in terms of central defenders, but Scalvini is on it.
“They have to make a decision on who exactly to go to for, but they like Scalvini and they think he is an important talent. In terms of how much he’ll cost – this is opinion rather than information – I’d estimate at somewhere between €30-40m.”
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