Manchester United prepared to pay £23m for Benoit Badiashile
According to French publication L’Equipe (h/t Express), the Manchester United board is willing to sanction £23m for the club to sign AS Monaco starlet Benoit Badiashile.
The 19-year-old Badiashile came through the youth ranks at Monaco and made his senior debut in 2018 during the ill-fated reign of Thierry Henry as manager.
Since then, he has gone on to feature 48 times for the Principality outfit, scoring three goals and setting up another. (h/t Transfermarkt)
As per the report, Manchester United are keen on signing the teenage defender, who is tipped to emulate Real Madrid star Raphael Varane. Along with United, Bayer Leverkusen are also interested in Badiashile.
Manchester United already have a plethora of centre-backs in the squad. Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof were the preferred central defenders last season, with Eric Bailly and Axel Tuanzebe providing cover.
However, Lindelof hasn’t always been convincing enough, while the latter have had injury issues aplenty. In addition, the club are keen on selling Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo. Thus, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is keen on another centre-back. (h/t Express)
And to that end, the Red Devils are reportedly willing to pay £23m in order to sign Badiashile from Monaco.
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Badiashile is a talented youngster with immense potential, no doubt. However, spending that amount of money on a teenager, when we can push one of our own in Teden Mengi into the first-team, wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
Instead, the club would be better off looking at signing a more established defender to pair up with skipper Maguire.
