Bundesliga club make official enquiry for 20-year-old Man Utd man
Bayer Leverkusen have made an official enquiry for Manchester United full-back Brandon Williams, according to a reliable source.
Sky in Germany claim that the Bundesliga side want to sign the emerging 20-year-old on a permanent deal.
Bayer need a replacement for Santiago Arias, who joined the club on loan from Atletico Madrid in September.
Bayer expect to be without the Colombian for six months after he broke his leg and sustained ankle ligament damage after falling awkwardly after a tackle by Darwin Machis while on international duty.
United are keen to get game time for Williams, who broke into the first team last season. But they are apparently not willing to sanction a permanent sale, which is what Bayer are looking for.
After 36 appearances last season Williams would have been hoping for more action this time around. The left-back though has played just once in the Premier League out of five appearances.
Since the arrival of Alex Telles in the summer, the defender has slipped down to third-choice left-back with Luke Shaw being the preferred option.
The defender has been linked with a temporary switch to the Saints in January by the Telegraph.
The source claimed Ralph Hassenhuttl wants to encourage competition for full-back Ryan Bertrand.
Neville’s predictions
Meanwhile, Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher have reviewed their pre-season selections to win the Premier League title and finish in the top four this season.
The pundits were in good form on Monday Night Football – and also named their Premier League Team of 2020.
And having named six Liverpool players in their team of the year, it was no surprise that both stuck by their pre-season title pick of Liverpool.
Neville said: “I said they were going to at the start of the season, and there’s nothing I see.
“That moment around Villa and Van Dijk getting injured I thought, ‘this could be interesting’. But they’ve settled down now.
“They’ll have bumps – they didn’t have bumps last year – they were unbelievable. They’ll have bumps this year just because of the league and the way it is but I think they’ll definitely get there.”