Man Utd great urges Liverpool to beat rivals to £70m Dutch destroyer Former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam believes Liverpool should do all they can to try and beat Barcelona – as well as his former club – to the signing of Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt. The commanding centre-back, 19, has emerged as one of European football’s hottest properties and has been linked to Liverpool, United, Juventus and Bayern Munich – but it’s Barcelona that look favourites to land him. However, Stam claims the Ajax captain, rated in the £70m bracket, must choose his next club carefully – and he believes a move to Liverpool would would be best suited to his career at this time. “It’s important that he’ll get playing time,” former defender Stam told DAZN, when asked why De Ligt should choose Liverpool ahead of Barcelona. “If you look at the squads: Barcelona, after losing to Liverpool (in the Champions League semi-final), probably wants to strengthen their squad, especially in defence, if you ask me. “The question is how they are going to solve that problem? “I think that Matthijs de Ligt would be a good fit though. It will be great to see how he performs against better players in a better league, not just every few weeks, but every weekend. “The same goes for Liverpool. We all know who is their biggest defensive star – his Dutch colleague (Virgil van Dijk) would help him – the other players, [Dejan] Lovren and [Joel] Matip, rotate quite a lot.” De Ligt helped Ajax wrap up the Eredivisie title on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over De Graafschap and the 19-year-old didn’t have time to celebrate before he was asked about his future. However, the teenager insists his next move is far from a done deal. “This is not the time to talk about my future,” he told Fox Sports. “I don’t know if I will go with Frenkie de Jong [to Barcelona]. I still have to analyse things and see everything. We’ll see what happens. “I cannot say anything. We’ll see at the end of summer. There is nothing yet.” Asked about Ajax’s season in which they reached the Champions League semi-final, he added: “It is indescribable. We have been craving this for five years. “I enjoyed the cup, the competition, the Champions League and especially the team spirit.” Get the latest personalised Reds products on our new TEAMtalk Liverpool shop! The post Man Utd great urges Liverpool to beat rivals to £70m Dutch destroyer appeared first on teamtalk.com.

Former Manchester United defender Jaap Stam believes Liverpool should do all they can to try and beat Barcelona – as well as his former club – to the signing of Ajax defender Matthijs de Ligt.

The commanding centre-back, 19, has emerged as one of European football’s hottest properties and has been linked to Liverpool, United, Juventus and Bayern Munich – but it’s Barcelona that look favourites to land him.

However, Stam claims the Ajax captain, rated in the £70m bracket, must choose his next club carefully – and he believes a move to Liverpool would would be best suited to his career at this time.

“It’s important that he’ll get playing time,” former defender Stam told DAZN, when asked why De Ligt should choose Liverpool ahead of Barcelona.

“If you look at the squads: Barcelona, after losing to Liverpool (in the Champions League semi-final), probably wants to strengthen their squad, especially in defence, if you ask me.

“The question is how they are going to solve that problem?

“I think that Matthijs de Ligt would be a good fit though. It will be great to see how he performs against better players in a better league, not just every few weeks, but every weekend.

“The same goes for Liverpool. We all know who is their biggest defensive star – his Dutch colleague (Virgil van Dijk) would help him – the other players, [Dejan] Lovren and [Joel] Matip, rotate quite a lot.”

 

De Ligt helped Ajax wrap up the Eredivisie title on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over De Graafschap and the 19-year-old didn’t have time to celebrate before he was asked about his future.

However, the teenager insists his next move is far from a done deal.

“This is not the time to talk about my future,” he told Fox Sports.

“I don’t know if I will go with Frenkie de Jong [to Barcelona]. I still have to analyse things and see everything. We’ll see what happens.

“I cannot say anything. We’ll see at the end of summer. There is nothing yet.”

Asked about Ajax’s season in which they reached the Champions League semi-final, he added: “It is indescribable. We have been craving this for five years.

“I enjoyed the cup, the competition, the Champions League and especially the team spirit.”

 

Get the latest personalised Reds products on our new TEAMtalk Liverpool shop!

 

The post Man Utd great urges Liverpool to beat rivals to £70m Dutch destroyer appeared first on teamtalk.com.

James Marshment