According to Daily Mail, Juventus star defender has expressed his desire to join Chelsea on a potential transfer this summer.
And as per The Sun, Manchester United have been linked with a move for de Ligt as they look to improve their defensive options ahead of the next season.
Despite having a contract until 2024 in Turin, de Ligt has made up his mind to leave in this transfer window. He is looking forward to teaming up with Thomas Tuchel with the Blues looking to sign him for around £65million. However, Juve want to raise the price as much as possible in this situation.
Man United have been dealt a blow by the Dutchman’s stance, with the West Londoners being in line to hold more negotiations with the Bianconeri this week. Chelsea have already made several offers for the defender, but his decision would certainly give more leeway in their pursuit.
It is believed we have £120million to spend without taking sales into account if there are plans to facilitate a rebuild under Erik ten Hag.
We have already parted ways with £14.5million for Tyrell Malacia, with Chrisitan Eriksen agreeing to join us on a free transfer. That does give us some room to play with, although Fabrizio Romano has claimed that ten Hag wants the Red Devils to turn their attention towards Lisandro Martinez.
Ajax rate Martinez at £45million, which is much more feasible when compared to de Ligt’s valuation in our current delicate situation. While the latter is much younger and experienced in top-flight football, pursuing him would probably endanger our transfer plans for the other positions in the squad.
After all, Barcelona’s Frenkie de Jong is our primary target for this summer, and it would take €65million plus €20million in add-ons to add him to our ranks this summer. That gives little to no room to play with, so it is wise to target Martinez instead of de Ligt in our current circumstances.
Hence, even if potentially losing out on the 22-year-old de Ligt would be a blow indeed, we can negate that by using that fee to build our squad overall rather than spending big on one position. With Martinez and de Jong being lined up next, let’s hope to see them signed as quickly as possible with the pre-season drawing close.