Manchester United news: Former defender urges Solskjaer to spend £100m on a star defender

What's the story?

The former Manchester United defender, David May urged Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to sign Kalidou Koulibaly to sort his team's defensive woes.

In case you didn't know

Manchester United started the 2018-2019 season poorly, which subsequently led to the sacking of the former manager, Jose Mourinho. The Red Devils appointed the former player, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as the caretaker manager for rest of the season and the Norwegian guided United to five victories in a row in all competitions since taking charge at the club.

The 19 times Premier League champions are currently sixth on the Premier League table and are well off from the leaders, Liverpool, who are 16 points ahead of them. Most of their struggles are down to their defence and they conceded 32 goals in 21 Premier League games.

United tried to sign a centre-back in the summer transfer window. But unfortunately, they failed to finalize a deal with any of their top targets and ended up falling short in the position.

However, with the January transfer window open now, Manchester United are again linking with the signing of the centre-back and Napoli's Kalidou Kalibouly is identified as the top target by the club.

The heart of the matter

The former Manchester United defender, David May is impressed with Solskjaer's spell at the club so far and urged him to spend whatever it takes to sign Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli.

May told 888sport: “If you look at United over the last God knows how many years they’ve always gone out and broke transfer records if need be.

“They did with Rio [Ferdinand], [Angel] Di Maria, [Paul] Pogba, [Romelu] Lukaku. They allegedly pay [Alexis] Sanchez half a million a week.

“If you want the best players then you have to pay top money for them. City do it.

“Liverpool did it with Van Dijk and just look at the transformation.

“They spent £70 million on a goalkeeper, which is a hell of a lot of money but what that gets you back is guaranteed Champions League football and the possibility of winning the Premier League.

“The amount of money United earn then to spend £100m on a defender….so what?

“Real Madrid will spend it. Barca will. Chelsea and City will.

“If it guarantees you a much better defence then go ahead and spend it.

“If Koulibaly becomes available – and there are rumours that he is interested with a fee of £90m – then I’m sure Ole would say he’d be a great signing for Man Utd.

Author's take

The Senegalese international is currently among the best defenders in the world and would be a great signing for the Red Devils.

However, he recently signed a new contract with Napoli and United need to be unrelenting with emptying their pockets to sign the talented defender. He is also being linked with a move to Barcelona and Real Madrid, which makes the situation more difficult for Manchester United.