EXCLUSIVE: Timber is Ten Hag’s defensive priority at Man Utd

Steve Kay

• 10 Apr 2023 09:50 BST
• 2 min read

Exclusive

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has made Ajax’s Jurrien Timber his defensive priority ahead of the summer transfer window, FootballTransfers can exclusively reveal.

Ten Hag is on the lookout for a right-back, with Diogo Dalot and Aaron Wan-Bissaka having failed to cement their places in his plans. For the role, he ideally wants versatility, which is why Timber is his preference over Bayer Leverkusen defender Jeremie Frimpong, who represents a more attacking option.

Man Utd have held talks with Netherlands international full-back Frimpong but it is Timber that Ten Hag prefers in that area.

Indeed, the ex-Ajax head coach moved to bring the 21-year-old across to Old Trafford last summer, but the player felt that the timing was not right in his career.

Ten Hag looks at Timber as the perfect signing to not only play in the right-back position but to also come in as centre-back when needed to cover for Raphael Varane.

With the futures of Sweden star Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire up in the air, the player who Ten Hag knows so well from his time in Amsterdam would be the idea replacement.

Timber could join his former Ajax team-mates Lisandro Martinez and Antony for around €45 million. Although Manchester United’s future is uncertain in terms of the ownership of the club, it is not thought that these medium-sized deals will pose too great a problem to push through.

Instead, it is the mega-transfers such as that the Red Devils are aiming to complete for a striker that are put under greater question.

With an Estimated Transfer Value of €42.5m, Man Utd are set to get a fair price for a player who has been at Ajax since 2014.

Timber featured in four of the five games the Netherlands played in Qatar but is now understood to be ready to move if the right offer is brought to him in 2023. Man Utd are positioning themselves to make such a bid.