Manchester United has beaten out Barcelona to sign left back Daley Blind from Ajax. Multiple outlets are reporting that a fee of £14 million was agreed upon.The 23-year-old certainly impressed in the Netherlands’ strong World Cup run, and no doubt his connections to Louis van Gaal and Robin van Persie will have a lot to do with how he’ll fit in and succeed at Old Trafford.
All summer long, we heard all about Blind being linked to LVG and Ed Woodward, and now it appears that a deal has been done. Defenders is exactly the position that United needs most, so this is a great fit and a tremendous buys. It also helps that they sold off Tom Cleverley for £9 million. That’s some solid business dealings there.
Through the group stages of the World Cup, Daley Blind registered more assists than any other player. Since the Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw signings, United have missed out on a few players: Arturo Vidal, Toni Kroos, Thomas Vermaelen and a couple others. But hey, Daley Blind, coupled with Angel Di Maria and Marcos Rojo makes for a pretty successful transfer window!
Also you may remember that Daley Blind provided the assist and the lead-in to this, the highlight play of the entire World Cup:
;
Paul M. Banks owns and operates The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yahoo! and the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world and been featured in hundreds of media outlets including NFL Network, Fox Sports 1 and ESPN2. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)