Man Utd to battle for £25m left-back this summer

Jose Mourinho has not been settled on a left-back since joining Manchester United in the summer of 2016.

Although Ashley Young has predominately played there this season, the winger-come-defender turns 33 before the start of next season and is not the boss’ long-term fixture here.

We have also used Luke Shaw, Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo and Matteo Darmian here but Jose doesn’t appear to be keen on any of them.

Last summer we were strongly linked with Tottenham Hotspur’s Danny Rose but nothing materialised, whilst over the past couple of months Napoli’s Faouzi Ghoulam has been strongly linked with a move to Old Trafford.

However, the Sun are now reporting that it is Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand who we are going to make a move for this summer.

The report says that we will do battle with Everton and Newcastle United for the 28-year-old, valuing him at £25 million. In today’s market that is good value for the proven left-back.

Southampton’s Premier League status is under real threat as they are three points adrift of safety with six games to go, and playing very badly in the process. Regardless of them going down or not, the player is unlikely to turn down Champions League football and the biggest club in England if we make a move for him.

Bertrand does still have three years left on his £80,000-a-week deal at St Mary’s and Southampton have a record of holding onto players longer than they want to stay – Jose Fonte and Virgil van Dijk are two examples of this.

Sources close to the Sun understand that Ryan Bertrand wants a new challenge at the end of the season. He’d certainly be an upgrade for us in this position should we make a move for him this summer.