Manchester United looking to ‘finalise’ deal for £51million defender ‘in the coming days’

Ciaran McCarthy
Kim Min-jae, Napoli, May 2023

Italian journalist Rudy Galetti has revealed Manchester United are to hold a “new round of meetings in the coming days” in which they hope to “finalise” a deal for Kim Min-jae.

The makeup of United’s defence has changed a fair bit over the last few seasons. The game time of Harry Maguire is a perfect way of highlighting that.

In his first season, in 2019/20, he didn’t miss a single Premier League game. This season, he played just 16 times in the league, with Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane – both of which signed after Maguire – preferred over him.

Erik ten Hag is seemingly still keen to add defensive reinforcements to his side, with Maguire potentially on the way out. Napoli defender Kim appears to be top of his shortlist for this summer.

The defender himself has given the deal the go-ahead, with a report at the end of May stating he was ‘patiently waiting for the opening of the window to get his big move’ to United.

However, it seems United and Napoli have not yet agreed upon the transfer. That’s despite the formula seemingly being a very easy one for the Red Devils, given the defender has a reported £51million release clause.

In any case, they could soon come to an agreement, with Italian journalist Galetti suggesting a new round of talks are set to get underway, giving United the chance to iron out the details.

“There is a new round of meetings scheduled already in the coming days in which Manchester United will try and finalise and reach a full agreement on personal terms,” he told GIVEMESPORT.

“Then in early July, the English club already planned to pay to Napoli to the release clause of €60m valid for 15 days to bring in the Korean player, followed also by Liverpool and Tottenham, to the Premier League.”

Indeed, United will hope things run smoothly, given the other sides that could cause them a problem if they can’t come to a full agreement with both Napoli and Kim over the move.

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