Sky Journalist Confirms United Are Ready To Battle “Top Clubs” For Defender Who Chelsea Bid 77.5M For Last Summer
Manchester United are among the “top clubs” who are “highly involved” in the race to sign RB Leipzig centre-back Josko Gvardiol, according to Sky Sports Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg.
The 20-year-old has impressed playing for Croatia at the World Cup and Plettenberg says there will be a battle for the defender’s services next summer:
News #Gvardiol: We’ve been told: NO release clause in his contract until 2027. But lots of top clubs informed about him for 2023. #CFC, #MUFC, Real and Barcelona highly involved. For Tuchel he was the main target. Boehly also focused on him. NO contact with Bayern. @SkySportDE 🇭🇷 pic.twitter.com/XQsOqjzpEx
— Florian Plettenberg (@Plettigoal) December 5, 2022
As Plettenberg mentions, Premier League rivals Chelsea are also interested in Gvardiol. Fabrizio Romano reported back in July that the Blues had a €90m (£77.5m) bid rejected for the player.
It means that the Croatian international could cost a serious amount of money, especially if he doesn’t have a release clause as Plettenberg claims.
Signing another centre-back so soon after recruiting Lisandro Martinez from Ajax is unlikely to be top of Erik ten Hag’s agenda but the United manager may feel that Gvardiol is such a good prospect that the Red Devils need to be in the mix for his signature.