Man United prioritising signing of 25-year-old Dutch midfielder

After the partial takeover of Man United was fully ratified on Tuesday by all necessary parties, the Sir Jim Ratcliffe era can really begin in earnest.

There’s an awful lot for the INEOS group to get their teeth into, not least on the playing side of the club.

It appears evident that the Red Devils are short in a number of positions, and the new owners of the footballing side of the business need to grab a tight hold of things and make some fairly hard-nosed business decisions in order to move forward.

If that means shipping out a number of current first-team stars, so be it.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, which is already an incredible 11 years ago, United have sporadically enjoyed success, but nothing like they did under the Scot.

That has to be the aim for Sir Jim, but United will get nowhere near that with the current crop of players.

A handful should retain their place without any question, but there are a large number of high earners and players who have flopped at the club that need to be moved on – quickly.

One area where United have struggled is in midfield, so it’s no surprise to learn via Football Transfers (h/t Fichajes) that their priority signing for this summer is AC Milan’s highly rated Tijjani Reijnders.

It won’t be an easy hire given Milan only signed him a year ago, however, there could be scope to do a deal if the player intimates he’d like to move to Old Trafford.