Barcelona to announce €120 million signing next week, Manchester United set to beat Manchester City to €70 million signing and more: Transfer Roundup, 2 July 2019

Manchester United set to beat Manchester City to Harry Maguire

If the latest reports emerging from England are anything to go by, Manchester United's transfer window is shaping up nicely. Having already signed the exciting winger Daniel James from Swansea City and right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Crystal Palace, the Red Devils are now in pole position to sign Leicester City centre-back Harry Maguire.

Manchester United's centre-back problems have been well documented. They were desperate to sign Maguire last summer but the board refused to back Jose Mourinho. Now it looks like the board has realized that a top centre-back is the need of the hour and are keen on backing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and giving him the squad that he wants.

Manchester City were being closely linked with the England international. However, the report claims that Manchester City have been put off by Leicester's asking price which is in the ballpark of the £75 million Liverpool paid for Virgil Van Dijk in the 2017-18 season.

Manchester United are reportedly sorted on the financial front and are ready to go and snap up the 26-year-old.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

Know More

Edited by Arvind Sriram