Jamie Ireland
When he takes over at Manchester United after the World Cup, Louis van Gaal is going to have to bring one or possibly two new centre-backs in with him.
The Express reports that Manchester United will attempt to take on Barcelona and Bayern Munich, in the battle for Athletic Bilbao’s Aymeric Laporte.
The 20 year-old central defender has nailed down a place in Ernesto Valverde’s side, who finished fourth behind the big three in Spain and qualified for next season’s Champions League.
Laporte is only the second Frenchman to play for the Basque side, with the other being former Bayern Munich and French international Bixente Lizarazu.
He has had an impressive season at the San Mames, making 35 league appearances, winning 61% of his headers and chipping in with two goals. (Squawka)
The French defender has spoken often of his desire to test himself, however, as they have shown in the past Bilbao like to play hard ball when it comes to letting their players go.
They set very high release clauses in the players contracts and will not budge on the price, as for Laporte his buy-out clause is believed to be around £30 million.
Although he is yet to make is senior international debut, Laporte has proven with his performances this season that a call from Didier Deschamps is not far away.
But in my opinion, for United to spend that amount of money on an inexperienced, uncapped centre-back would be highly frisky.
The transition for defenders from La Liga to the more physical Premier League can be a difficult one, and I am not sure van Gaal is willing to risk the stability of his defence in his first season.
As for Laporte, watch this space.
