Fabrizio Romano confirms Man Utd will battle Liverpool for €35m star pushing to quit title winners

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp and Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag

Manchester United and Liverpool have both been given the green light to pursue a deal for Ryan Gravenberch after Fabrizio Romano confirmed the player is pushing to quit Bayern Munich and move to the Premier League.

Both United and Liverpool have endured mixed summers on the transfer market. The Merseysiders started with aplomb, signing both Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai for a combined £95m fee. But since then, they have missed out on two leading targets in Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, while also seeing stalwarts Fabinho and Jordan Henderson move on.

As a result of missing out on the £160m pair to Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp and Co are now scrambling around for alternatives. And given the numbers that have departed from their midfield this summer, Klopp still wants a minimum two new midfield signings, ideally three, before the window shuts.

To that end, a report on Thursday suggested a spectacular quadruple deal was in the works for Liverpool to end the window with a bang.

As for United, there summer transfer plans appear to have ground to a halt. Having spent their allocated £175m budget, any further additions at Old Trafford are solely reliant on player departures. However, with the biggest departure of all in Harry Maguire no nearer the exit door, Erik ten Hag’s prospects of adding to his squad look bleak.

Nonetheless, he will continue to live in hope and a few other key exits could yet help ease their FFP concerns.

To that end, United and Liverpool are both sniffing around two midfield targets in both Sofyan Amrabat and Gravenberch.

The former appears destined to sign for Liverpool after a Klopp-led intervention.

READ MOREKlopp intervention key with top Man Utd target turning back on Ten Hag as Liverpool open talks

Romano confirms Gravenberch wants Premier League transfer

As far as Gravenberch goes, it appears to be a much more open race.

The Netherlands international moved to Bayern Munich last summer but found his game-time limited under both Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel.

And while Tuchel is keen to keep the former Ajax man around, Gravenberch has now decided he needs to move on for the good of his career.

Given both Liverpool and Manchester United are keen on a deal, it is easy to see why Gravenberch may be convinced to leave Bayern.

Now Romano has confirmed that the star, rated in the €35m (£29.9m) by the Bundesliga champions, that he is pushing for a move away.

“The big problem with Gravenberch is Bayern,” Romano said on his YouTube channel. “They want to keep Gravenberch, they don’t want to sell him. But in the last two, three days, Gravenberch is insisting to consider some possibilities in the Premier League.

“Liverpool called to be informed on the situation exactly as they did for [Sofyan] Amrabat, but they never submitted a bid.

“So let’s see if they will decide to enter the race with an official proposal or not. But at the moment, nothing advanced yet.

“Bayern are the big issue because they don’t want to sell the player. But in case Bayern will give the green light in the final days of the window, keep an eye on Liverpool, but especially Manchester United.”

If Bayern do dig their heels in over Gravenberch, it may take an inflated fee to convince them to sell. To that end, reports in Italy state Bayern could be persuaded to sell if they receive an offer worth €50m (£43m). That would more than double their initial investment into the player, who made just two starts in the Bundesliga last season.

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