5 Things You Need To Know About Manchester United’s Likely £15m January CB Signing

Manchester United manager seems like one who loves making contingency plans, at least some sort of option that he could revert back to in case a primary plan fails. This is about the most logical reason why a large number of players have been linked to the club since he took over. Recently, the news of Dani Alves’s imminent move to Manchester was reported by virtually all of the media houses world-wide and it took an official statement from Barcelona’s sporting director to subside the rumours.

With this development, Louis van Gaal seems to have switched to a plan B with The Mirror reporting on good authority that the Old Trafford outfit are closely monitoring the situations surrounding Matteo Darmian who currently plies his trade at Serie A side Torino and might likely make an offer for his services as soon as January.

The Dutch boss at Old Trafford has never hidden the fact that his full-backs, Rafael most especially has been unimpressive with his performance and even told the Brazilian that he could seek new employers this recent summer. Although Rafael has since picked up on his game, it appears that the manager still sees more to be desired in the 24-year-old’s performances and is now concluding plans to prise away Darmain from Italy with as much as a £15m bid. However many Old Trafford fans know so much about Dani Alves, but how much is known about Matteo Darmian?

He is young and versatile. At 24-years, the Italian’s dynamism is admirable especially when you take into consideration the dearth of players that can easily fit into two or more positions on the field. He is most comfortable when deployed as a right-back but could also be just as effective when played as a left-back or a right-sided midfielder.

Darmian featured for his country at all levels from the under-17 to the senior national team. Since making his debut for Italy in May this year, he has won 10 caps and is also tied to Torino for another two years. While he was at Palermo, he featured just 16 times but has till date appeared 115 times for his current employers.

He is a scorer. He made his debut for the Italian national team in May and has only appeared 10 but the 24-year old Darmian has since scored three times and has made seven assists! In fact he actually seems like the kind of talent that Louis van Gaal could use.

He might be a more reliable alternative. The Italian has great stamina and tenacity as he can actually pace to and fro the flanks all game long more so, the fact that he has established himself as the regular full-back for Italy probably makes him more dependable than Rafael who played just over 30 games over the last 3 seasons.

Although many might know this but it is still worthy of note, the Italian for all his brilliance and dynamism could make the switch for as low as £15m in the New Year.