What I do know is that Manchester City have pursued De Ligt for a long time
Duncan Castles on Man City and Matthijs de Ligt
City will look at replacing departing captain Vincent Kompany who will take up a player-coach role at former club Anderlecht.
Castles says De Ligt is the type of defender that manager Pep Guardiola would go after.
“We should factor in here that Manchester United are not the only Premier League club that Mino Raiola will try and sell the player to,” he said on The Transfer Window podcast.
“There has been talk of Liverpool’s interest which I think is correct.
Liverpool and Man City are interested in Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt, says Duncan Castles (Image: GETTY)
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Matthijs de Ligt has been linked with a host of Europe's top clubs (Image: GETTY)
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“Although I don’t think there need is as great, certainly not as great as Manchester United.
“What I do know is that Manchester City have pursued De Ligt for a long time.
“I know that, several months ago, before Barcelona went in strong for De Ligt, that people at Ajax felt City was his most likely destination.
“We now have Vincent Kompany announcing his exit from Manchester City to move to another league and become player-coach at Anderlecht.
Matthijs de Ligt played a huge part in Ajax's run to the Champions League semi-final (Image: GETTY)
“That happened quite soon and it’s something that Manchester City have to reassess, their transfer strategy, to the point of do they want to have John Stones as their starting centre-back next season, alongside Laporte?
“Or do they want to bring in another high-quality defender to compete for that position?
“And De Ligt fits the profile for City in this sort of focus they’ve always had of signing the best of young talent, being prepared to put high transfer fees down in the expectation the player’s value will increase.”