Manchester United have joined neighbours Manchester City and a couple of other European heavyweights in the race for Inter Milan defender Milan Skriniar
Manchester United are the latest club to throw their hat in the ring for the signing of Inter Milan centre-back Milan Skriniar, according to reports from The Sun. United will go up against bitter rivals Manchester City, along with Barcelona and Real Madrid who have all expressed some degree of interest in trying to sign the player from the Nerazzurri.
Skriniar joined Inter from fellow Serie A side Sampdoria last summer and has quickly established himself as one of their most important players. Under the guidance of manager Luciano Spaletti, the 22-year old hasn’t missed a single league game for the Italian giants and has scored three goals in 22 Serie A outings, helping Inter to fourth place on the table.
And Skriniar’s agent, Karol Csonto, has confirmed that his client is attracting serious interest from across Europe, with Manchester United among those interested and even went on to claim that Inter had rejected an offer of £57 million from one of the aforementioned clubs in the ongoing January transfer window.
As quoted by the Sun, Csonto said: “I knew he would never leave in this window, but I can confirm that big clubs like Barcelona, Real Madrid and the two Manchester clubs are interested. And I can also add that one of these clubs has made a £57 million bid for him. Inter rejected it, telling me that they can’t afford to lose their defender now.”
However, he hinted at the possibility of an exit at the end of the season for Skriniar, saying: “I can’t really say, but there are still a lot of months and a lot can happen.”
Inter Milan reject Milan Skriniar bid as four of the worlds biggest clubs chase him downhttps://t.co/VCeWuu3xUC pic.twitter.com/zPyvYNCZ0s
— The Sun Football ⚽ (@TheSunFootball) January 30, 2018
Manchester United have plenty of options in their defence with the likes of Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Victor Lindelof, Marcos Rojo and Eric Bailly, who is currently out injured. Given the number of options that Jose Mourinho has at his disposal, one cannot see him bringing in another defender, unless someone would be sold.
Manchester City, on the other hand, broke their transfer record to sign French defender Aymeric Laporte from Athletic Bilbao for a reported €65 million fee this week and it is unlikely that Pep Guardiola would be willing to spend a similar amount of money on another defender, with the likes of John Stones, Nicolas Otamendi already in tow.
Barcelona too signed a new centre-back in the ongoing transfer window as well, landing Colombian defender Yerry Mina from Palmeiras, to cover for the departed Javier Mascherano. However, Real Madrid could definitely do with a new centre-back.
Having let go of experienced defender Pepe in the summer, the club did not replace him and have felt the brunt of it. They do have Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Nacho and Jesus Vallejo in their ranks, but none of them have had a solid campaign, which might force Zinedine Zidane’s hand in the market.
Given that Skriniar joined Inter only six months ago and has a contract till the summer of 2022, they are well within their rights to be standing their ground and rejecting an offer as huge as £57 million.
A move in January seems highly improbable, but if the interested parties come back in the summer, with a bigger offer, the Nerazzurri might have to reconsider their position, and it remains to be seen if any of Manchester United, City, Barcelona or Real Madrid launch the offensive for Skriniar.