Over the past few months, there has been a growing expectancy in the Italian media that Lazio centre-back Stefan De Vrij will leave the Serie A club at the end of the season.
A late attempt by Chelsea in the summer to sign the player prior to the David Luiz transfer has meant Antonio Conte’s side have been mentioned as an interested party ever since, but it’s José Mourinho’s Manchester United who have been touted as being firmly in the lead for the Dutchman.
Just last week, in fact, we covered an article from Il Messaggero claiming the Red Devils had a ‘first refusal/pre-agreement’ deal with Lazio for the 25-year-old defender, but it appears things have changed.
The very same newspaper have dedicated a few column inches on Wednesday to the player’s future, and their new stance on the whole thing is “there are no favourites for now”. 
That’s quite the turnaround, if you ask us.
Of course, Manchester United are still mentioned, with Il Messaggero even saying an representative of the SEG agency, who have De Vrij as a client, was spotted in Manchester, fuelling the rumours.
While this may sound exciting, it’s worth pointing out that two weeks ago, the Premier League side were deep in negotiations with Lyon regarding the transfer of Memphis Depay to France, who also happens to be represented by SEG.
Despite all of this, the bottom line remains that De Vrij is likely to leave in the summer.
Oh, and Il Messaggero now reckon Manchester United and Chelsea have been joined by Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain (probably because Patrick Kluivert is their director of football) in the race for the Dutchman’s services.
