Manchester United Ready To Offer £50k-A-Week To Convince CB To Join

It is no longer news that the weakest link in the Manchester United team is the defence section. This shouldn’t come as a surprise seeing as the club has lost the services of 3 seasoned defence enforcers in Nemanja Vidic who switched to Inter Milan after about 7 years of trophy laden service, Rio Ferdinand who moved over to the Queen Park Rangers and also Patrice Evra who has since transferred to Juventus. So it begs the question why Manchester United’s manager Louis van Gaal did not do more to reinforce the defence. There were several options he could have turned to such as Mehdi Benatia and Thomas Vermaleen, both of whom are tested defenders and could bring the much needed leadership to the young crop of defenders currently filing out for the Manchester giant.

Although the Dutchman sanctioned the signing of Marcos Rojo and Luke Shaw, these changes weren’t enough to salvage what was left of an already depleted defence. However another factor is the persistent injuries that ravaged the defenders. This issue was so serious that Louis van Gaal has already handed debuts to two youth team defenders Tyler Blacklet and Paddy McNair to augment the defensive options and while this has worked out well in some matches, others were simply catastrophic.

Amongst the options available to Louis van Gaal last summer is Aston Villa captain Ron Vlaar and according to the Daily Star, van Gaal is hoping to lure the centre-back to Old Trafford. According to the report, the Dutchman wants 50,000 a week which United are prepared to offer but Villa aren’t.

The Dutch defender featured under Louis van Gaal at the recently concluded World Cup at Brazil and having performed so well, it is still surprising that Manchester United are yet to sign him up. The 29-year-old defender will be free to leave the Villa park at the end of this season and Manchester United are believed to be weighing up a £4m bid to tempt Villa boss Paul Lambert into releasing the dynamic stopper.

Manchester United might likely face stiff competition from Arsenal and Southampton who have previously signalled keen interest in the defender’s signature, but given the dire circumstances that Louis van Gaal has found himself, he will be desperate to bring in an experienced defender who canprovide the required leadership that is currently lacking in the Red Devils defence and for just £4m, Vlaar could be good business for van Gaal.

However, the Dutch boss has not signed any player above the age of 27 since he arrived at Manchester and might not be willing to flout his policy with his fellow countryman, but whatever, he decides, he will have to be very active in the January transfer window with serious emphasis on the defence.