Man Utd confident of signing £75m defender with lucrative contract

Manchester United officials are confident we can wrap up a £75 million deal to sign Harry Maguire from Leicester City, according to reports.

The England international was a target of Jose Mourinho’s last summer as we failed to land both Maguire and any other centre-back.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also appears keen on the 26-year-old as he continues to be linked with a move to Old Trafford. And it now appears he could well be on his way, at least according to a report from the Daily Mail.

It states that Manchester United officials are confident of sealing a deal before we kick off our Premier League campaign against Chelsea on Sunday 11 August. It includes offering the centre-back a lucrative contract.

Last season we conceded 54 goals in the Premier League – our worst record since the competition was rebranded in 1992. The boss has gone about trying to fix our defensive woes this summer with the acquisition of right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Crystal Palace. Ole now appears keen to bring in another centre-back before the start of next season.

However, only last week did Sky Sports report that we had an opening £70 million offer rejected by the Foxes, with the 2015-16 Premier League champions wanting to hold out for a record deal.

The Daily Mail are now claiming that we are increasingly confident that we’ll fight off competition from Manchester City City to sign Harry Maguire and that talks are on-going between us and Leicester. It is understood that we are confident we can strike a deal for around £75m.

We currently have six centre-backs on our books, including Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones. However, it was obvious last season that we need an upgrade in this position, likely to partner Lindelof. Bailly’s injury problems have made him unreliable ever since he signed for us.

It would be fantastic if we could sign Harry Maguire but we’ll have to wait and see how things develop over the coming days or weeks.