Manchester United are reportedly moving ahead in their search to replace Cristiano Ronaldo, as the club prepare a €50 million (£43.1 million) bid for Cody Gakpo.
Erik ten Hag confirmed last week that the Red Devils would look to offset Ronaldo's acrimonious departure in the January transfer window and Gakpo has emerged as their top target. United were interested in the 23-year-old Dutch forward over the summer but ultimately decided to focus their efforts of signing Ajax winger Antony, who Ten Hag had previously worked with, for £87.1m.
Now, though, the Red Devils boss is understood to have accepted that his side need to bring in a new forward after Ronaldo saw his £480,000 contract terminated following a bombshell interview with Piers Morgan which burned his bridges at Old Trafford.
And according to the Telegraph, the United hierarchy are willing to back Ten Hag, who's impressed club chiefs in his first season at the helm and wants to pursue Gakpo in January.
The Netherlands international was the subject of bids from Leeds and Southampton during the s ummer transfer window but opted to stay at boyhood club PSV Eindhoven and work under new manager Ruud van Nistelrooy. However, after scoring three goals for Holland as they reached the World Cup quarter-finals, PSV are now braced for his departure next month.
But he won't come cheap, as the Eredivisie giants' sporting director, Marcel Brands, confirmed that a fee high enough to prise Gakpo away from the Philips Stadium "must be a (club) record". "He has no clause or anything," Brands told the PSV supporters' club talk show Eeuwig Trouw, having watched the versatile attacker rack up a sensational 13 goals and 17 assists before the World Cup break.
"No amounts have been agreed on either. The agreements that were made were there before my time. Amounts have not been discussed, but if the right club comes that Cody would like to go. Those agreements were already made before I came. It must be a record transfer anyway. Then you know in which direction it should go."
Have your say! How would Man Utd line up with Gakpo? Let us know your XI in the comments section.
One thing is for sure, Ten Hag certainly wants too see his forward options bolstered over the winter. "Yes, we want to sign a forward in January," the Dutch tactician recently revealed, via the Athletic. "But only when we find the right player. We will do everything in our power."
Gakpo remained tight-lipped on his future during the World Cup, most recently saying: "After (I will decide my future). I'm not thinking about that now. I'm just really focused on the tournament, trying to keep performing well and helping the team and hopefully when we become world champions then I can think about that.
"No (it's not been hard to concentrate given the speculation), not really. I'm just trying to keep focused and the other players don't really talk about those things which also helps me in this situation."
