Man Utd will not sign one of Solskjaer’s four favourite CBs

Matt Stead
Kalidou Koulibaly Napoli Man Utd

Man Utd will not pursue a centre-half Ole Gunnar Solskjaer considers to be one of the four best in the world this summer.

With the most expensive central defender ever already in their ranks, it is believed that Man Utd will focus on reinforcing elsewhere in the next transfer window.

Harry Maguire, along with Aaron Wan-Bissaka, arrived last summer to strengthen the defence.

And with Jadon Sancho and Jack Grealish identified as their two primary targets, Man Utd will now focus entirely on improving their attacking options.

The Manchester Evening News claim that while Solskjaer and the club are long-term admirers of Kalidou Koulibaly, he will not be joining.

Solskjaer ‘regards Koulibaly as one of the best centre-backs in the world along with Virgil van Dijk, Matthijs de Ligt’ and Maguire, but a combination of his age, price and United’s existing options count against any possible deal.


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Koulibaly turns 29 in June, which puts him beyond United’s preferred age bracket of 23 to 28, while Napoli have been known to value him as highly as £250m before.

While United were once ‘hell-bent’ on bringing the Senegal defender to the Premier League, they ‘do not regard’ Koulibaly ‘as an essential target’ any longer.

That tallies with Ed Woodward’s recent comments about the transfer window, as Solskjaer is ‘content’ with his current choices in defence.

Maguire has emerged as a genuine leader alongside Victor Lindelof, while Luke Shaw has impressed when used in a back three and Axel Tuanzebe has committed his future to the club long term.

Chris Smalling is also due to return from his loan spell at Roma, with Eric Bailly still a valued member of the first team.

The report also mentions Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo but let’s not be too silly.