Man Utd target €170m Bayer Leverkusen quartet in Sir Jim Ratcliffe splurge

Manchester United are reportedly interested in a €170m Bayer Leverkusen quartet ahead of the summer transfer window.
Leverkusen are very much in the spotlight this season owing to their oustanding performances which see them eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga.
Manager Xabi Alonso is at the top of the shortlists of both Bayern Munich and Liverpool, and is said to be leaning towards the former despite advanced talks with the latter.
And it feels like the majority of their players have also been linked with summer moves away, with Liverpool keen on Piero Hincapie, Florian Wirtz and Edmond Tapsoba, while Chelsea are keeping tabs on Victor Boniface.
And now SportBILD (via Sport Witness) claim United are ‘keeping a close eye on’ Tapsoba, Exequiel Palacios, Jeremie Frimpong and Odilon Kossonou.
It’s claimed Frimpong is ‘the most serious target’, apparently not so concerned now with the full-back’s height (5ft 6in) as they were in 2023.
He’s ‘probably leaving’ in the summer and has a release clause of €40m.
United are also ‘dealing with’ defensive midfielder Palacios, who is also valued at €40m, though the Bundesliga side’s ‘willingness to sell is low’.
The same can be said for Tapsoba, who joined for €20m in 2020 and is now worth twice that, and though United are ‘interested’ a sale is deemed unlikely given he signed a new contract in September.
Fellow centre-back Kossounou meanwhile would cost United at least €50m having developed into a ‘top defender’ under Alonso.
United will therefore need at least €170m to land all four Leverkusen stars, which may not be possible given how the club will be ‘severely squeezed’ in Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s first transfer window at the helm as a result of FFP and their recent lavish spending.
And even if United were able to spend such a significant sum, it’s surely unlikely Leverkusen will allow so many of their top players to leave in the same window as their manager.
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