Manchester United according to Cadena COPE have already upped their bid for Sergio Ramos, by offering €40 million in four €10 million a year instalments, as well as offering David De Gea as part of the deal.
Prior to going on his personal holiday, Louis Van Gaal promised that most the clubs summer signings would be done prior to the tour of the US, has been chasing multiple centre-backs such as Mats Hummels, Nicolas Otamendi and Sergio Ramos for a few weeks now.
However with Hummels expected to make a shock U-turn and resign with Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City reportedly closing in on Otamendi, Louis van Gaal has upped the effort to sign Spanish international Sergio Ramos regardless of the cost. With shot stopper David De Gea reportedly wanting to join Real Madrid regardless of the Ramos deal, van Gaal is looking to use this to secure the signing of Sergio Ramos.
The 30 year old centre-back is rumoured to be furious at the sacking of Carlo Ancelotti who delivered Real Madrid “La Decima” to the capital just the season before.
Would he be a good signing for Manchester United?
Sergio Ramos who has made 445 appearances for Real Madrid and 128 appearances for Spain at the highest level, at 30 years of age is nearing the end of his career as a top class defender. But that being said he is still turning in consistently impressive performances for Real Madrid, he wins 47% of all attempted tackles, wins 68% of all headed duals. However he did give away 40 fouls last season, resulting in 12 yellow cards.
While stats doesn’t prove a footballer solely, but they do show some information about how they are performing on the field. These stats do show that defensively Ramos is a pretty reliable player, he also scored four league goals for Real Madrid.
However how much does United really need to spend so much money on a defender? It has been argued all of last season that Manchester United were in desperate need for a new centre-back. But last season saw Manchester United concede just 37 goals, the fourth least in the league, but it is arguable that a lot of this is down to extremely impressive season of David De Gea.
Who will he replace and partner?
If the rumours are true then who will Ramos play alongside? The fight would be between Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo.
Jones made 22 appearances out of a possible 38 in the league last season. He completed 51% of his tackles and won 60% of his headed duals. The stats do show his obvious ability, but what they don’t show is his clumsiness on the ball and that he is often caught out.
Smalling played 25 league games last season. He was only successful in 44% of his tackles but he did win 66% of all headed duals. Much like Jones he was often caught out seemingly not paying attention, but he contributed four goals including a header against Manchester City in the 4-1 victory.
Finally we get to new signing Marcos Rojo who took a while to mould within the squad. He won 47% of his tackles and 53% of his headed duals. But while his stats are only second best out of the three players, what stats don’t show is that he is better on the ball than both Smalling and Jones as well as being a lot more switched on off the ball.
Due to this if the transfer does go through Rojo would be the better defensive partner, but Ramos will have to do a lot to live up to the high price tag and Manchester United have to cope without player of the season, David De Gea.
