Man Utd Ready To Hijack Arsenal’s Move For €45m Attacker

The January transfer window may have slammed shut but clubs will still be working hard behind the scenes at identifying targets for the summer, so we’ll bring you all the latest news, gossip and rumours. Today, Man Utd join Arsenal in the race for Julian Draxler.

Manchester United are ready to try and hijack Arsenal’s attempts to sign Schalke attacker Julian Draxler this summer, according to the Daily Star.

Draxler has become one of the most highly-rated youngsters in Europe since breaking into the Schalke team in 2011 aged just 17 and has gone on to make 138 appearances for the first team, scoring 26 goals in the process.

Arsenal fans will know his name well by now as the Gunners have been strongly linked with a move for the attacking midfielder over the last 12 months, and were widely reported to have been in deep negotiations over a move during the January transfer window.

In the end, Arsene Wenger is believed to have refused to meet Draxler’s €45m (£37m) asking price but the Frenchman remains keen on the player and is expected to renew his interest in the summer.

However, it seems the north Londoners face fresh competition for the 20-year-old’s signature with the Daily Star reporting that Manchester United are now ready to muscle in on the proposed move.

The newspaper suggests that boss David Moyes sent his scouts to watch Draxler put in another impressive performance during Schalke’s 2-1 win over Augsburg on Friday night, where the youngster set-up a goal for Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and had one of his own ruled out.

Draxler becomes the latest German international to catch the eye of the defending champions, with United also strongly linked with Borussia Dortmund’s Ilkay Gundogan and Bayern Munich’s Toni Kroos.

Moyes has endured a disastrous first season in charge at Old Trafford since replacing Sir Alex Ferguson and it slumped to a new low with a 3-0 home defeat to Liverpool on Sunday, so you’d expect the Scot to be active in the transfer market this summer to try and rebuild his squad, if he’s given the opportunity to do so by the United board.

Whether he’ll be able to land any of his key targets remains to be seen though. It’s looking increasingly unlikely United will be able to offer Champions League football next season, which will make it difficult to attract the kind of players they are currently looking at.

You’d have to say, despite the interest from United, Arsenal are still in the driving seat to land Draxler after putting in a lot of groundwork over the past few months, so if the German youngster does decide to try his luck in the Premier League, I think we’ll see him make the move to the Emirates ahead of Old Trafford.

READ MORE –> Arsenal transfer news | Man Utd transfer news

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