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Liverpool vs Manchester United is arguably English football’s biggest rivalry and it might be about to extend to this summer window too.
Football Insider reports that the Merseyside team have made their interest in Goncalo Inacio “concrete”.
This spells trouble for United, who have long admired the Sporting Lisbon man and were reportedly ready to move for him in the summer.
Liverpool reportedly see Inacio as the long-term replacement for Virgil Van Dijk and are ready to pounce on what they see as an “achievable” price of £40 million.
For that price, many United fans would argue that the club should be trying its hardest to beat its biggest rivals to the punch.
United’s interest in bringing a new centre-back this summer is an open secret and the name linked with most consistency has been of Jarrad Branthwaite.
Everton are likely to start talks at £75 million for their prized asset so in comparison, the deal for Inacio, similarly left-footed, is a no-brainer.
In fact, United letting Liverpool move for Inacio would also have further dominos falling, none of which will please United much.
That’s because they retain an interest in Sporting players Morten Hjulmand and Ousmane Diomane.
The sooner Liverpool start raking in the money by making their first sale, it will get incrementally more difficult to do a deal for another player in the same summer.
United felt the effects of this when Ten Hag came in and the whole of Europe was eyeing Ajax’s players.
They ended up paying £85 million for Antony, a deal that could well go down as one of the club’s worst-ever transfers in history.
The contest for Inacio is warming up with other clubs besides Liverpool and United interested as well so the club would do well to get clarity on their manager and start making moves of their own.
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