Transfer Talk:Manchester United ready to pay £53M for Laliga Super star According to Sky Sports Pundit

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Manchester United are set for another bid summer of bid spending it seems as Jose Mourinho looks to turn us into Premier League and Champions League title challengers. It is widely expected that we will sign a couple of defenders and midfielders before the start of next season and several players have been strongly linked already.

With Michael Carrick set to retire at the end of the current campaign and Maourane Fellaini ready to leave on a free transfer we can be sure to sign two central midfielders. Another key position for us is at centre-back where Victor Lindelof failed to live up to his expectations this season and has only made a dozen Premier League starts following his big money move from Benfica last summer. The boss doesn’t appear to see either Chris Smalling or Phil Jones as long-term options so we’d expect to bring in another centre-back this summer to partner Eric Bailly. The Ivorian himself has been injury prone during his two seasons at Old Trafford as it is. One defender we have been strongly linked with since the close of the January transfer window is Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti. The 24-year-old has yet to put pen to paper over a new deal at Camp Nou and has reportedly stalled on offers from the club amid interest from us. Now Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert, Guillem Balague, reckons that we are interested in bringing the French international to Old Trafford this summer. Balague claims that Jose Mourinho would be willing to pay £53 million to bring Samuel Umtiti to Manchester United. Balague said: “Contrary to reports, Manchester United are still willing to pay €60m [£53m] for him.” However, the Spanish football expert added that Umtiti has reduced his salary demands at Barcelona: “But Umtiti has since reduced his demands and the conversations with Barcelona are more fluid than they were a few months ago.” Samuel Umtiti has started 23 La Liga games under Ernesto Valverde this season and did miss a couple of games over the winter period due to injury. The 6’0″ centre-back has been excellent for the Catalan club as they close in on another La Liga title. He offers pace, good in tackle and solid in the air. I’d certainly welcome him into the Manchester United starting lineup to potentially form a long and successful partnership alongside Eric Bailly.