Manchester United have reportedly joined Liverpool in the chase for Bayer Munich midfielder Thiago Alcantara this summer. The player has already stated his desire to leave the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and the UEFA Champions League holders this summer in a bid for a new challenge. The player wanted to sign for United in the summer of 2013 but was rejected by David Moyes, who clearly had plans to chase the unattainable, rather than signing players that wanted to sign for the club.
Liverpool have been the frontrunners in the chase to sign the Spanish defender this summer but seem to be reluctant to spend the money in the player. Bayern Munich chief Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is expecting a bid for the £27 million rated midfielder in the next few days, as reported by Norwegian journalist, Fredrik A. N. Filtvedt, who works for Dagbladet TV – who states that United are now in the mix to sign the 29-year-old. It could be a blow for Liverpool but it is expected that this could be a move to hurry Liverpool into concluding the prospective deal. Rummenigge was quoted by The Sun as saying:
“We are expecting an offer from another club in the next few days. He told us that at the end of his career, he would like to try something new.”
It has been reported in the last day or so that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is already monitoring Ajax midfielder Donny van de Beek this summer, a player who has been linked to United in 2020 already. If it was going to be either Van de Beek or Thiago, the 23-year-old Dutchman would be the better option in terms of longevity but if United were interested in signing both, it would be a massive upgrade on the likes of Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira and perhaps even Fred. Based on that, there could be something in this.
When United were linked to Thiago back in the summer of 2013, it was expected that the former Barcelona midfielder would sign for United. However, it has been suggested that Thiago begged Moyes to sign him that summer, but Moyes had decided that the Spaniard was ‘not the type of player that he wanted‘, which seems to be a very weird thing to say based on the player’s career in Germany since leaving Barcelona. It was a typical Moyes thing to do though, especially in the fact he signed one player that summer and that was not spectacular.
During his career in Germany, Thiago made a total of 235 appearances, scoring 31 goals and 37 assists at the club. The player won seven consecutive Bundesliga titles, four DFB-Pokal’s, three DFL-Supercups, one FIFA Club World Cup and one UEFA Champions League helping his club win the treble during the 2019/20 season. Based on this, it would show the type of player that Thiago was and how Moyes missed out on him by being David Moyes. It might have been different for United if Moyes had acted differently.
I fully expect Liverpool to end up signing Thiago this summer. These rumours seem to come at times whereby the interested club is not hurrying the deal so things happen to ensure that happens. Journalist Jan Aage Fjortoft does not think that United are being in this instance, so there could well be something in that, although personally, this seems to happen a lot. United do have a good relationship with Bayern Munich though, so I guess anything can happen. I would not be surprised if Liverpool got the signing over the line now though.
Written by John Walker
