Manchester United express interest in signing Champions League winner

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is reportedly eager to acquire the services of Jerome Boateng from Bayern Munich before the Premier League transfer window concludes on Thursday. The Portuguese tactician has been desperate to pursue a central defender during the summer but so far, there has not been any breakthrough with any of the transfer targets.
Amidst this, The Guardian reports that Boateng has propped up Mourinho’s wishlist but United remain reluctant to pay over the odds for the centre-back. According to the publication, the Bavarian giants are said to value their central defender between £45m to £53m for the Champions League winner but this is something United remain reluctant to match.
United were pretty impressive during the course of the previous campaign where they possessed the second-best defensive record across the Football League but there were games on the road where looked genuinely vulnerable.
Phil Jones and Chris Smalling have both struggled to perform consistently despite being at the club for long-term whilst the same could be said about Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof, who have been recruited under the tutelage of Mourinho.
Bailly has been widely regarded as the most consistent defender within the United ranks but he has suffered from long-term injuries over the past two campaigns which have restricted him to just over 50 percent of the club’s games.
On the other hand, Lindelof has impressed for the club in patches but he has yet to come to terms with the rigours of the Premier League, especially when being encountered by physically-built players.
At present, United appear nowhere close to acquiring the signature of Boateng but it will be interesting to see how the speculation paves in the coming days with Mourinho eager to recruit a new player at the heart of the defence.
Boateng has had injury concerns in almost every campaign with Bayern which has since him average less than 30 league matches and United’s attempt to sign him surely comes as a surprise, given the number of injury-plagued players within their squad.
Aside from Bailly, both Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo have missed certain periods during recent campaign through injury and the fans may not fancy another defender, who could frustrate carrying niggles at key stages of the season.