Man United And Man City Set To Battle For Kim Min-Jae From Napoli In The Summer
Manchester United have struggled away from home all season with eight defeats and one draw coming against the top nine sides in the Premier League.
Manager Erik ten Hag has agreed that such a statistic is not acceptable and that is what must change next as United look to keep improving under their new manager.
While a striker is of paramount importance, a case can also be made for the defence especially with the future of club captain Harry Maguire up in the air.
With both first-choice centre-backs Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez out of action, the England international was trusted against Sevilla but he fell well short.
Another left-sided CB could prove handy
Since then Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw have struck up a great partnership but the full-back is required at left-back and for that change to occur, Ten Hag needs a quality option on the left of defence.
Links with left-footed defenders have emerged with Sporting Lisbon’s Goncalo Inacio in the running but recently-crowned Serie A champion Kim Min-jae remains the favourite.
He was signed from Fenerbahce for just €18m last summer and not even the most ardent Napoli fan would have envisaged such an impact from Kalidou Koulibaly’s replacement.
The South Korea international has managed 42 appearances across all competitions, scoring twice and assisting the same number of times and keeping 20 clean sheets during that time.
As per Calciomercato, Napoli are resigned to losing the South Korean in the summer due to his release clause of €45million which can go up to €60million if certain big clubs enter the chase.
According to the report, both Manchester clubs — United and City are chasing the South Korean as they have identified him to be the missing piece in their jigsaw.
“The risk of losing him is concrete because a 45 million clause was set up on signing the contract, valid only for foreign countries from 1 to 15 July.
United vs City for Kim
“The attention of the Premier League is strong, in particular there are Manchester United and Manchester City ready to unleash a market derby to bring him to England.
“The clause varies according to the turnover of the club that would invest in the player, therefore the two Manchester teams would have to pay out around 60 million to take him away from Naples,” the report said.
Corriere dello Sport have also claimed that United are determined to get the 26-year-old this summer and preparing a bid in the region of €60m.
The Serie A champions will net a healthy profit from the centre-back and attention will soon shift to the future of star striker Victor Osimhen next.
