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Matthijs de Ligt offered to Man Utd and Real Madrid as Barcelona stall - Gabriele Marcotti
MATTHIJS DE LIGT is not certain to join Barcelona, claims European football expert Gabriele Marcotti.
Man United: De Ligt signing ‘up in the air’ says pundit
Ajax captain De Ligt has been linked with a host of Europe’s top clubs already this summer.
On Sunday, reports claimed Manchester United were no longer interested in the Netherlands international as they believed he was joining Barcelona.
But Marcotti claims that is not the case and that the deal could drag on longer than many expect this summer.
He says De Ligt’s agent Mino Raiola is touting his client around to other clubs such as Real Madrid and United.
He’s trying to create an auction right, so he’s punted De Ligt to Real Madrid, he’s linked him to Manchester United
And Marcotti reckons Barcelona will have to sell first before they can fund a deal for the talented defender.
“There’s a number of things [affecting the deal],” Marcotti said on ESPN FC.
“Partly the people looking after De Ligt, specifically Mino Raiola who’s trying to get the deal done.
“He’s trying to create an auction right, so he’s punted De Ligt to Real Madrid, he’s linked him to Manchester United, he’s offered him of course to Barcelona.
“Some reports in England say United are pulling out of the race for De Ligt, that all seems to be up in the air.
“But I think it’s a numbers game for Barca frankly.
“They’ve already spent a ton of money on Frenkie de Jong.
“They definitely can spend money to reinforce the squad but if you’re going to spend €80million on De Jong and you’re going to go after [Antoine] Griezmann who’s probably going to cost you north of €120m as well, then it becomes difficult to also add De Ligt.
“Unless you sell the likes of [Philippe] Coutinho, of [Ivan] Rakitic, [Jasper] Cillessen is another one who is probably going to go.
“Unless you sell all these guys at big, big numbers, and that’s frankly a little bit difficult to do right now.
“So De Ligt is still out there, not committed yet.
“So I think this is a story that can run for a while.”