Manchester United Planning Double Swoop Worth £22m On EPL Side
Manchester United according to reports, are lining-up fees up to the tune of about £22m for the Aston Villa pair of Fabian Delph and Ron Vlaar. United would readily capitalize on the fact that both players’ contracts expire by the end of the season and Aston Villa seems not swift enough in the process of extending their contracts. As necessities, Ron Vlaar is a proven defender, who could add some steel to the Manchester United’s leaky defence while Fabian Delph, a box-to-box midfielder could bring in pace and more fluidity to the United’s midfield that has players like Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Anderson and Marouane Fellaini. However, the intention of Aston Villa over securing the players on longer terms isn’t clear but they may stand no chance when Manchester United splashes the cash on them in January.
Just last week, Manchester United was said to have agreed a provisional personal terms with Ron Vlaar over a move to Old Trafford in January. Aston Villa would reportedly accept a fee in the region of £12m as a cut price for a player whose contract expires at the end of the season. Vlaar, 29, is an important member of Paul Lambert’s Aston Villa and also was a key figure in the Dutch national team squad which came 3rd in the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil. Coincidentally, Louis Van Gaal, who now manages the Manchester United team, was the manager of the Dutch national team squad to the concluded world cup. Therefore, Vlaar’s stalling contract extension talks and this reported personal terms agreement may have been influenced by personal relationship.
Vlaar signed for Aston Villa from Feyenoord in 2012 and the contract expires in the summer of 2015. Aston Villa would be torn between selling the player for a modest fee in January and tying him down to a better and long term contract or risk losing him for free in the summer of 2015. Ron Vlaar didn’t really enjoy an impressive reputation at Aston Villa until this year’s World Cup where he played impressively well in the heart of the defence for Netherlands and this has earned him the status of a highly sought defender for teams like Arsenal, Manchester United and other teams with defensive deficiencies. Now, the reason for the slow motion in the contract extension talks with Villa is yet unknown but one can easily speculate that Vlaar wants a better offer, one which may have been stated high above what Aston Villa could afford to pay. This cannot be unconnected with the Manchester United factor.
For Delph, his importance to Aston Villa, this season has been very immense and Aston Villa would do well to keep him. However, Manchester United’s bid according to the calculations in this report may not be enough to price him away from Villa Park. If Aston Villa would accept nothing less than £12m for Vlaar, then the remainder of the £22m would be £10m and that may not be acceptable by Aston Villa despite the player having just less than a year left on his existing Villa contract. The player’s impressive showing for Villa earned him his very first call-up into the English national squad recently and that too isn’t lost on Aston Villa.
Though Manchester United spent a whooping £150m in the summer transfer window and may not have much to spend in the winter, the capture of Ron Vlaar and Fabian Delph shouldn’t be much of a problem to the wealthy club, even if Aston Villa doubles their asking price for Fabian Delph.