Newcastle looking to hijack Man Utd deal for Ten Hag’s no.1 centre-back target after opening approach

Newcastle have reportedly opened talks over Axel Disasi, who Manchester United have been in discourse with for weeks, according to Fabrizio Romano.

United have five senior centre-backs in the squad currently. The preferred pair when available are clearly Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane.

Below them in the pecking order are Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly. Lindelof was the preferred deputy to the starters last season, playing more often than club captain Maguire.

The Englishman may well find himself moving away from Old Trafford this summer if United receive a suitable offer. That’s as manager Erik ten Hag is reportedly ‘intent on’ shipping him out, along with a few other players.

Previous reports have suggested Bailly is also not wanted by the club, and Real Betis are hoping that means he’ll be available for no cost, despite there still being a year on his deal.

Given there’ll be defenders leaving, and United will want to kick on from their third-placed finish in the Premier League last season, they’ve been on the hunt for a new defensive star.

It looked for some time as if that was going to be Kim Min-jae, before Bayern Munich swooped and look to have snapped him up for themselves.

As a fallback, United landed on Monaco defender Disasi.

Newcastle rival United for Disasi

However, that potential deal is one that could end in tatters, too, with Newcastle United now interested in the Frenchman.

That’s according to transfer insider Romano, who states they have ‘approached’ the player’s representatives, before an expected approach to Monaco.

That could, of course, cause a problem for United, if Newcastle act quicker than them.

While neither side has bid ‘yet’, United manager Ten Hag has reportedly ‘approved’ Disasi and United have been in talks with him for ‘weeks’.

With that being said, he’ll now surely be keen to put the wheels in motion before there’s another hijack. Having had Kim stolen from them, the Red Devils won’t want the same to happen with Disasi.

Disasi ready to step up

It appears that the centre-back is ready to make a move to a big club. The 25-year-old has only consistently played in the top flight in France for three seasons.

This season was the first time he didn’t miss a single game, and it also happened to be his best season.

Disasi scored three goals and assisted another three – obviously great numbers from a centre-back while also doing his work on the defensive end.

He also played eight Europa League games as Monaco reached the knockout stages – scoring twice and assisting once.

As such, if either side was to snare him, they’d be getting a player with European experience, and who offers something on both sides of the ball.

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