Man Utd Lead Arsenal & Chelsea In Midfielder Race, Reds Told To Pay £40m

The January transfer window is now closed but we can still look at deals that failed to get across the line and those being lined-up for the summer. Today, Man Utd lead the chase for Marco Asensio….

Manchester United lead Arsenal and Chelsea in the race to lure Marco Asensio to the Premier League but have been told it will cost £40m to sign the Real Madrid midfielder, according to the Daily Star.

Asensio joined Madrid from Mallorca for just £3m in 2014 and he’s developed in to one of the best young midfielders in European football having broken in to Zinedine Zidane’s first team set-up this season.

The 21-year-old has scored 7 goals in his 23 appearances in all competitions so far but understandably he’s finding regular first team football hard to come by at the Bernabeu with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Isco all ahead of him in the pecking order.

Asensio’s potential has caught the attention of several clubs throughout Europe and the Daily Star claim that Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd are all keen on luring the youngster to the Premier League this summer.

The likes of Arsenal and Chelsea are always on the look out to snap up the best young talent so it’s no surprise to hear they are keen on Asensio, however, the newspaper says that United lead the London duo in the race for his signature.

Madrid are understandably reluctant to lose the young midfielder and are under no pressure to sell as he’s contracted to the Spanish giants until 2021 but that’s not expected to stop a whole raft of clubs from making their interest known this summer.

And it seems they know the price they’ll have to pay if they want to land Asensio as the Daily Star claim that United have already been told they’ll have to stump up £40m in order to sign the Spanish international at the end of the season.

That may seem steep for a player that’s only recently broken in to the first team but players with the talent of Asensio don’t come cheap so I’m not surprised that Madrid have slapped that kind of price-tag on his head.

We’ll have to wait and see how things develop over the coming months but United are obviously a club who could afford to pay £40m and it could be viewed as a good investment as Asensio has his whole career ahead of him and will only get better and better over the next few years.

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The youngster is predominantly a central midfielder who can also play out wide and he’s known for his pace and shooting ability, so I think he’d be an exciting signing for United, or indeed Arsenal or Chelsea, if they were able to lure him away from Spain this summer.