At just 19 years of age, it’s hard to comprehend that Matthijs de Ligt is already a bona fide leader of men. Not yet out of his teens, the Ajax centre-back has already earned the respect of colleagues much older, and he led the Dutch side by example throughout the 2018/19 season. Unfortunately for Ajax they remain a selling club and, after losing Frenkie de Jong to Barcelona, they’re now on the verge of accepting that De Ligt will ply his trade elsewhere in the upcoming campaign. The style of play at the Camp Nou would certainly suit the player, and a chance to team up with De Jong again will obviously hold some cachet, however, things are far from cut and dried. His agent, Mino Raiola, has a fractious relationship with the club, and that’s only been exacerbated since the end of the season. Why? Raiola is demanding somewhere in the region of €10 million euros for himself, out of a transfer operation that’s expected to conclude at around the €80m mark. To genuinely believe that he should take that much out of the total sale price is vulgar and disgusting, but that’s never bothered Raiola before, and he always seems to hold the upper hand in negotiations. To that end, De Ligt has been touted around amongst Europe’s best clubs, and, though they don’t have Champions League football to offer, it’s believed that Manchester United are one of them. The chance to take the Red Devils back to the promised land is an intoxicating thought for any player, and under a progressive Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, De Ligt will know that he can stake an immediate claim for a starting spot rather than waiting, for example, for Gerard Pique to retire. United have struggled with their centre-backs recently too. Eric Bailly is probably the pick of the bunch, but injury concerns have always curtailed his progress and he won’t be back any time soon. The less said about Phil Jones the better, while Chris Smalling can be a much better player with a solid partner alongside.