Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will sanction a new long-term deal for Axel Tuanzebe and the chance to stake a first-team claim in pre-season, claims The Daily Mail.
Tuanzebe, who has captained United’s underage groups, spent last season on loan at Aston Villa and played a key role in their promotion from the Championship.
Villa are monitoring Tuanzebe’s future with a view to bringing him back to the club next season but the youngster will first have the chance to force his way into the reckoning at Old Trafford.
United are on the market for a new world class centre-back but have fallen short in their pursuit of Ajax captain Matthijs de Ligt and are struggling to agree a fee with Leicester for Harry Maguire.
The Red Devils have had a £70m bid for Maguire knocked back and it remains to be seen whether they are willing to match Leicester’s eye-watering £90m valuation.
It is claimed Solskjaer is prepared to go into the next season without signing a new centre-back despite the fact United set a club record for goals conceded in a Premier League campaign last season.
Missing out on Maguire would almost certainly benefit Tuanzebe’s chances of breaking into United’s first-team next season, with Solskjaer keen to discard at least one of Marcos Rojo or Eric Bailly this summer.
The 21-year-old, who has 12 months left to run on his current United deal, made 27 league starts for Aston Villa last season and returned a steady WhoScored rating of 6.75 in that time.
