Manchester United need a major overhaul this summer in terms of players, which means that it’s not ideal that new boss Louis van Gaal is in Brazil, taking charge of his native Holland. The Netherlands manager has a team back at Old Trafford, though, trying to sort out the recruitment. The reason I know this is because the Daily Star are reporting the club have offered a mega deal to Atletico Madrid centre-back Joao Miranda in an attempt to lure him to Manchester.
The Brazilian is 29 years of age and would go some way to replacing Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, who have both confirmed that they will be departing this summer.
Miranda has a £24.2 million buy-out clause in his contract and is said to want to leave the La Liga champions, and I think United would be the perfect destination for him.
Van Gaal currently has Phil Jones, Jonny Evans and Chris Smalling to choose from in the centre of defence, if you count the latter as a centre-half, so Miranda would probably be the one he builds the defence around.
Unlike the aforementioned trio, Miranda loves to get the ball down and play it, but only if those around him are looking for the pass. He played 32 league games for Atletico in their title winning season last time out and completed 80% of his passes. He also made 171 clearances, 69 tackles, and 33 interceptions.
It’s a big yes from me.