Manchester United are back in for Portuguese holding midfielder William Carvalho, according to The Times.
Louis van Gaal has been keen to sign a holding midfielder this summer with the Red Devils strongly linked to Arturo Vidal, Nigel de Jong and Daley Blind.
The newspaper is now reporting that Manchester United have renewed interest in the highly-rated Sporting Club midfielder William Carvalho. However, they aren’t alone – with Arsenal also linked to the powerhouse over the past week.
Louis van Gaal and Arsène Wenger don’t have long to secure the 22-year old’s signature with the transfer window shutting on Monday.
It was reported Sporting initially wanted Carvalho’s buy-out clause of €45 million (£36m) matched but The Times now say he can be purchased close to €30 million (£24m).
Manchester United only signed Marcos Rojo from Sporting for £16 million eight days ago and are perhaps on good terms with the Portuguese side. This was helped by loaning Nani back to his original club for the full season.
The Premier League giants have already spent £131.7 million on the signings of Ángel Di María (Real Madrid), Ander Herrera (Athletic Bilbao), Luke Shaw (Southampton) and Marcos Rojo (Sporting Club) this summer. The owners appear willing to offer their Dutch manager significant funds in rebuilding the club after a seventh-place finish under David Moyes last season.
It has not been a good start for van Gaal – despite being tipped by Betfair to win their opening games, United have been beaten 2-1 at home by Swansea City on LVG’s debut, held 1-1 at Sunderland last weekend and humiliated 4-0 at MK Dons in the League Cup midweek.
The signing of William Carvalho would be a big boost to the Manchester United defence that needs protection based on their opening few matches.
Arsenal themselves have also been in the market for a holding midfielder this summer and may find the reduced asking price for Carvalho an attractive offer in the final week of the 2014 summer transfer window.