Manchester United Transfer Rumors 2017: Red Devils Target PSG's Marco Verratti

By Noriel See, Christian Post Contributor Thursday, July 20, 2017

Manchester United's inability to land a defensive midfielder has been a source of frustration this summer. Reports claim the club has already tried, and failed, to sign Nemanja Matić, Eric Dier, Tiemoué Bakayoko and Fabinho. However, it seems the Red Devils may have moved on to a new target.

Italian football news outlet TuttoMercatoWeb has reported that United have entered the race to sign Marco Verratti. The Italian footballer has been linked with a move to Barcelona all summer long. However, Paris Saint-Germain have refused to part ways with him because they are reportedly holding out for a huge transfer fee of around €80 million for the midfielder.

According to the report, club manager José Mourinho has been eyeing Verratti for months now, and United have the money to spend to sign him.

Meanwhile, Verratti has announced that he has parted ways with Donato Di Campli and hired Mino Raiola as his agent.

"I hereby announce that, as of this moment, the only person who is authorised to represent me in all matters related to sport is Mr Mino Raiola," Verratti wrote on his Instagram account, via FOX Sports.

"I thank Mr. Di Campli for the excellent job done so far and I take the chance to confirm my deep and unchanged faith in his abilities," he added.

Apparently, Verratti decided to drop Di Campli after the agent criticized PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi and called the midfielder a "prisoner of the Emir at PSG" earlier this month. Verratti has already issued an apology after Di Campli made the comment, and he said those weren't his words.

This is good news for United because Raiola was instrumental in securing Paul Pogba's, Henrikh Mkhitaryan's and Zlatan Ibrahimović's transfers to Old Trafford. Bookies have even slashed the odds against United signing Verratti after the announcement was made.