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United consider defender move in January

Club-Atletico-de-Madrid-v-Malmo-FF-UEFA-Champions-LeagueDiego Godin is the latest defender to be linked with a move to Manchester United, as Louis Van Gaal looks to address his defensive crisis in the January transfer window.

According to reports on today’s Daily Mirror, the Atletico Madrid defender has been monitored by United’s scouts, though it remains difficult to see how the Colchoneros would be happy to part ways with one of their main men, who’s under contract with the current La Liga defending champions until 2018.

The Uruguayan centre-back, who has a £28.5m release clause in his contract, has played 184 times for Atletico since joining from Villareal in the summer of 2010 and has gone on to establish himself as a crucial figure in Diego Simeone’s outfit.

Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling delivered a solid performance against Hull on Saturday but are still short of fully convincing that they can be United’s first choice centre-backs, while Jonny Evans and Phil Jones are both injury prone, thus making almost necessary for Van Gaal to look for reinforcements.

Mats Hummels, the Borussia Dortmund and Germany centre-back, is thought to be Van Gaal’s number one target but the German has repeatedly stated he’s happy at the Westfalenstadion and United would face stiff competition if he was to leave the struggling Bundesliga outfit.

In the summer United were linked with a move for Godin’s teammate Miranda but ended up signing Marcos Rojo, despite reports that they had agreed to trigger the defender’s release clause.