Man Utd open talks to sign Arsenal target Lisandro Martinez

Manchester United have opened formal talks to sign Lisandro Martinez as they look to hijack Arsenal’s move for the Ajax defender, according to Goal.com.

The Gunners have been chasing Martinez this summer after Mikel Arteta made the South American defender one of his prime transfer targets as he looks to strengthen his back-line ahead of the new season.

Martinez is predominantly a left-sided centre-back so Arteta wants him to offer competition to Gabriel but he’s also comfortable playing at left-back which would give the Gunners boss a top class back-up for Kieran Tierney.

Arsenal appeared to be leading the chase to sign Martinez with talkSPORT one of several media outlets to report on Tuesday that the Londoners were closing-in on a deal after submitting an improved £35m bid having seen an opening £26m offer rejected.

Goal suggest that Arsenal then improved upon that offer further by adding bonus payments on top of the £35m fee as they tried to push through a deal before Manchester United formalised their interest.

United had asked to be kept informed of any development surrounding the future of Martinez while they focussed on the signings of Frenkie de Jong and Tyrell Malacia.

However, it looks like United have now made their move to hijack Arsenal’s proposed deal with Goal claiming that the Manchester giants have held positive talks over a deal for the 24-year-old defender.

Late hijack

The report suggests that Man Utd are hoping to adopt a similar tactic as they did with Malacia, whereby they let Lyon agree terms with Feyenoord before making a late play to hijack the deal.

Erik ten Hag is hoping to do the same with Martinez as they look to beat Arsenal to a deal. The new United boss knows the player well from their time together at Ajax so he’ll be confident of convincing him to opt for Old Trafford over the Emirates.

Ten Hag is looking to overhaul the squad he inherited from Ralf Rangnick and Goal says Eric Bailly and Phil Jones have been made available for transfer as they look to make room for Martinez.

We’ll have to wait and see how things progress over the coming days but talkSPORT reporter Alex Crook claims it will take an offer of £41m to tempt Ajax into a sale, so Arsenal and United will need to come up with an offer close to that figure if they want to get a deal done.