Manchester United’s main target for a centre back will not be leaving Real Madrid, according to both the manager Rafa Benitez and owner Florentino Perez.
Manchester United have been chasing the signing of Sergio Ramos for a few months now as they first enquired about the player in June of this year. The original bid that was made for the defender was around £28.6 million but the club immediately turned it down.
Ramos seems willing to leave the club, however, the manager doesn’t want to let go of such an experienced defender. He is currently the starting centre back that plays alongside Frenchman Raphael Varane.
Benitez sees Ramos as a professional and integral to the team.
The veteran defender has travelled to Real Madrid’s pre-season tour in Australia and now, Rafa Benitez has released his willingness to keep the 28-year-old. He called the player “an integral part” of his current squad.
Benitez carried on by saying to reporters in Melbourne: “In terms of Sergio Ramos, there's a lot of talk about his situation,
"For me, he is an enormous professional. In person, he applies himself, he does everything that the team and I ask of him.
"And for me, the matter (is that) the president has already commented that he is staying with the club.
"I have spoken to him at length in the summer about his ideas, about his future. I see Sergio as an integral part of our team, he's a winner and that's what we need in our team."
If he were to leave Madrid, he would join the ranks of recent signings at Manchester United. The club have signed Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin and Matteo Darmian so far this summer and the manager Louis Van Gaal seems to want two more signings before the end of the summer.
Van Gaal has said that he wants to sign a centre back and a striker. Ramos is not the only defender that United have been linked with in recent weeks, Nicolas Otamendi from Valencia has been skipping out training sessions and didn’t turn up to the new kit launch.