Manchester United are making moves behind the scenes to ensure they have a successful January transfer window. The club are still feeling the effects of a poor summer window where the club failed to land any of their defensive targets leaving them in the predicament they are in now.
Now they are already making plans to raid Serie A for some of the top talents on the continent. Their next target is Roma midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini who currently has a €30m release clause, which the Serie A side are desperately trying to increase.
According to Corriere dello Sport, the player’s agent Giacomo Pocetta has met up in London with the Manchester United directors and has received a tempting offer. United are willing to double Pellegrini’s salary from £20k a week to £40k a week whilst also happily paying the release clause to Roma.
This has put Roma onto the back foot as they desperately try to negotiate a new deal with the 22-year-old who has impressed this season. Roma already lost two key midfielders this summer as Radja Nainggolan joined Inter Milan and Kevin Strootman moved to Olympique Marseille.
They do not want to lose another midfield talent, especially at such an early stage of his career.
At the very least Roma will want to increase his buyout clause, but United are hopeful of getting a deal done early on in January. Jose Mourinho is keen to strengthen his central midfield area after struggling to find a balance between any three of his current midfielders, including how to get the best of Paul Pogba. Maybe Pellegrini can be that man.
The Red Deils have also been linked with Everton and English goalkeeper Jordan Pickford. It is believed that David De Gea could be on his way out of the club following Mourinho’s men inability to mount a serious title challenge.