“I wanted to sign him”

Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag has confirmed he wants the Red Devils to sign Bayern Munich centre-back Matthijs de Ligt this summer.

There are reports of strong interest from the Red Devils in the Dutch international. With claims he wants to join the Premier League club.

One report even claimed that Man Utd have agreed terms of £170,000 a week with De Ligt and the two clubs now need to agree a fee.

But there have been other claims that Manchester United are not currently willing to pay the €50m fee Bayern Munich are asking this summer after signing young French centre-back Leny Yoro from Lille.

And Ten Hag has now confirmed he backs the Red Devils’ pursuit of De Ligt, who the Man Utd boss has worked with in the past at his previous club Ajax.

“It remains to be seen whether De Ligt will come,” Ten Hag said. AD Sportwereld.

“I know Matthijs well and I won’t deny it. I wanted to sign him two years ago but at that point he was too far along to sign for Bayern Munich but, believe it or not, his name never came out of my mouth during the process (at United).”

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Ten Hag has revealed that his list of targets was decided without him while he was on holiday, but that he supports his selection in order to “jointly arrive at the best possible selection”.

“But of course I support these decisions, let that be clear,” Ten Hag added. “We made these decisions together.

“I know it creates a certain image, of course I understand how that works, but in the end, our criteria will prevail over everything else: is the player good or not? Does he have the right character? Does he fit the age and quality we are looking for?”

“I understand that when you don’t win, the media slanders you and there is a bad image, but (nationality) is irrelevant, whether it is from Holland, Sweden or France. It is like the colour of the player’s hair. It doesn’t matter what the outside world thinks.

“We make decisions together and together we come up with the best possible team.

“I firmly believe that we are moving in the right direction.”