Fabrizio Romano says Man United “really like” OGC Nice star Jean-Clair Todibo – Man United News And Transfer News

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Football transfer guru Fabrizio Romano claims that Manchester United have a clear favourite on their list of possible centre-back signings.

United have struggled in the absence of ball-playing Lisandro Martinez this season and due to the physical fragility of Raphael Varane, who at 30 years of age is likely to become increasingly injury-prone.

And whilst both Victor Lindelof, Jonny Evans and, lately, Harry Maguire have provided ample cover, their futures remain undecided and a world-class option is high on United’s list of transfer priorities.

According to Romano, the man at the top of the wish list is OGC Nice’s Jean-Clair Todibo.

“I told you United were already scouting some players such as Antonio Silva from Benfica, who’s considered a super talented centre-back, and staying in Portugal, a Sporting player called Goncalo Inacio who is left-footed and a different kind of centre-back, more technical than fast, is being looked at.

“Jean-Clair Todibo is having an incredible season at Nice and was already very expensive last summer when United considered the possibility of signing him. At that point Nice wanted €40m/€45m, so imagine now, with the club first in the Ligue Un table, the boy is gonna be super expensive – but Man United really like him.”

Romano also doesn’t mention the so-called “United tax”, which sees clubs whack the asking price up for United because of their known propensity to overpay.

A potential point of interest around Todibo could be that his current club is owned by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is poised to invest a 25% stake in United and take control of football affairs.

While Ratcliffe would have to be careful not to simply plunder stars from Nice to bolster United’s ranks, it would obviously smooth the way for negotiations if the decision-maker on both sides was the same person.

Effectively Ratcliffe could be negotiating with himself.

However, Romano points out that “many other players around Europe could be really interesting for that position, and we’ll have to wait and see if United decide to invest in the January window or in the summer.

“It’s not clear yet because it depends on the budget and the opportunities.”

It could also depend on whether Maguire is able to maintain his promising run of form and whether other areas of the pitch become more urgent in the coming weeks.