Over the past few weeks, the Catalan media have gone silent on reports linking Matthijs de Ligt of Ajax with a move to Barcelona.
There’s a reason for this. On April 18th, Sport reported the centre-back ‘delays announcement’ on his future because he wants to focus on finishing the season with the Eredivisie club, who are in contention to win the treble.
Earlier this year, Barcelona agreed a deal with Ajax to sign his teammate Frenkie de Jong.
Journalist Miguel Rico, writing on the last page of Tuesday’s edition of Mundo Deportivo now brings an update about the Netherlands international… and Manchester United are pulled in.
He claims De Ligt has a very clear first option and that is to play alongside De Jong and Lionel Messi at the Camp Nou.
The teenager is managed by super-agent Mino Raiola and the player’s representative has an excellent relationship with Barcelona technical secretary Eric Abidal’s assistant, Ramon Planes.
Despite that, Raiola’s aim is to take De Ligt to ‘economically profitable’ clubs like Manchester United, Bayern Munich or Juventus. 
Raiola has close ties with the Serie A outfit and has clients at Manchester United, including Paul Pogba.
There have been no reports in England, Spain or Netherlands of late to suggest Red Devils’ interest in De Ligt.
This could possibly be a tactic from the player’s camp to get a better deal for De Ligt. Or maybe the Catalan media just want to be able to produce a list of clubs who were beaten.
