Upamecano to Manchester United is gathering steam.
A report from ESPN states that Manchester United are now focusing on signing French center back Dayot Upamecano after all but securing a $50 million deal for Dutch midfielder Donny van de Beek.
Per the report, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has asked the Manchester United board to speed up their transfer business and wants RB Leipzig center back Upamecano to arrive before the summer window ends on Oct. 5.
Upamecano, 21, only signed a contract extension this summer until 2023 -- his previous contract ran out in the summer of 2021 -- but reports in Germany have claimed his previous release clause of $71 million has been reduced to $50 million but that clause only kicks in at the end of the 2020-21 season.
He was a star for RB Leipzig as they reached the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League.
The report states that Man United believe there is a deal to be done for Upamecano in the coming weeks, as they want the Leipzig star to partner Harry Maguire at center back. It is believed that Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling and Phil Jones will all be moved on this summer and that leaves Solskjaer with Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly and Axel Tuanzebe as the other center back options.
The latter two players have had issues with injuries and Lindelof’s form dipped in 2019-20, but he’s a solid enough center back.
Manchester United have improved defensively since Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Maguire arrived last summer and if Upamecano arrives then their defensive unit will be extremely solid. With David de Gea being pushed all the way by Dean Henderson this season, United will likely become even tighter at the back.
We talk a lot about Man United’s attacking talents, and rightly so, but defensively they’ve improved drastically and that is the main reason why they qualified for the UEFA Champions League.