Reliable Spanish football journalist Guillem Balagué says Manchester United ‘look certain’ to sign Real Madrid left winger Ángel Di María next week.
Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports, Balagué said:
“At long last there is significant movement in the seemingly never ending, ‘Will he stay or will he go’ saga of Ángel Di María. It now looks certain that he will leave Real Madrid and become a Manchester United player. The final meetings will take place at the beginning of next week.
“United will pay between 60-70 million Euros (£48-55m) for the player. More than €60. A great deal for Madrid.
“I can exclusively reveal that, as we speak (Saturday night), football agent Jorge Mendes is on a flight from Singapore – where he has been putting to bed the purchase of Valencia by Peter Lim – to Europe, with a view to sealing the sale of Di María to United.
“So advanced, in fact, are the negotiations that it has already been agreed that Di María will wear the number seven shirt, worn in the past by no lesser players than David Beckham, Eric Cantona, Cristiano Ronaldo, George Best and Bryan Robson.”
There has been plenty of speculation surrounding the future of Ángel Di María over the past month or so since Real Madrid signed James Rodríguez and Toni Kroos.
Initially it was thought that Di María would end up at Paris Saint-Germain until their owner confirmed they had pulled out of negotiations during a press conference to welcome David Luiz to the Parc des Princes.
Since then, Manchester United have been strongly linked to the 26-year old who helped Argentina reach the final of this summer’s World Cup, scoring the extra-time winner versus Switzerland in the second round.
Manager Louis van Gaal has favoured the 3-4-1-2 formation at Manchester United pre-season which he also adopted in the first 45 minutes of their Premier League opener last weekend.
The former Netherlands head coach then switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation in the second half. The arrival of Marcos Rojo this week suggests he could favour making the latter formation his preferred choice.
There is certainly no space for Di María in the 3-4-1-2 formation with Juan Mata currently occupying the central role behind the striker and the Argentine not working hard defensively.
Provided Manchester United complete this transfer as Spanish journalist Guillem Balagué is confident, it will be interested to see which formation van Gaal moves to and where Ángel Di María fits in.
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