European Giants scramble for Man United ace

 

Juventus are in the market for a new Centre Back, as their Italian Twin Towers, Giorgio Chiellini and Leonard Bonnucci are in the twilight of their careers. The high profile capture of Dutch teenage sensation, De Ligt last season helped to ease the pressure on their long standing CBs, but De Ligt picked up an injury towards the end of the last season and will be out for several months. They will certainly be short in central defence, as their other CBs, Ruganni and Benatia, are not considered good enough to be regular starters.Napoli have Kalidou Koulibaly and Kostas Minolas, but Minolas has dropped  in form and is no longer the rock that he once was at Roma. Koulibaly could also be tempted away by the lure of the EPL, so they too have problems in central defence. Inter usually plays with three CBs, but apart from the Dutch Stefan de Vrij(28), the other two star defenders, Diego Godin and Milan Skriniar have been inconsistent, and Inter may decide to sell one of them this summer. On the strength of his performance this past season, Chris Smalling would easily pick a regular starting shirt at any of these three Serie A giants, and but for the emotional   attachment he has with Roma, he will surely fancy his chances of ending up at one of these Italian clubs  this season.But the question is: for how much longer can Man United wait for Roma to come up with the cash to acquire Smalling on a permanent basis? Both clubs have been haggling over Smalling’s valuation all through the past season, with United demanding a minimum of 20m, and Roma only willing to pay a total of 15m in batches. If Smalling’s price were to be raised to 25-30m because of last season’s performance, the Italian giants in their present condition will quickly jump at the offer. But United, for reasons best known to them, have continued to wait for Roma to complete the deal, rather than throwing the bid open to all comers.But for how long?

United aim to sell Smalling for 20m

Manchester United want £ 20 million   for Chris Smalling? That’s ridiculous. Why does United like to give away their players at ridiculously low prices when other clubs always quote astronomical figures when they want to sell players to United? One wonders whether the United executives are in touch with current realities at all. Smalling still has two years left on his contract, so United are not in danger of seeing him walk away free anytime soon. And he’s currently one of the best Centre Backs in all of Europe, and at 30, still has 3 or 4 more years of top class football left in him; so this player is worth far more than £ 20 million at the moment.

Man United executives need to wake up. They are willing to pay £75 m for Milan Skriniar and £70m for Kalidou Koulibaly, two players who also play in Serie A.  But while Chris Smalling was named in Serie A's Team of the Season and also the European  Team of the Season by some journals, Skriniar couldn’t even nail down a 1st team shirt an Inter Milan this past season, and Koulibaly couldn’t make it into Series A’s TOTS.

In terms of longevity, there is no difference between Smalling (30) and Koulibaly, who is 29. Skriniar is only a little younger than both of them. So what’s the thinking behind United valuing Smalling at only £20m? 

And why are they still talking to Roma when they spent the whole of last season doing just that? Why not throw the race open and allow other clubs to put in their bids.