Credit: Imago

Daniel Feliciano

Fri 21 April 2023 20:40, UK

Stan Collymore has tipped Manchester United to sign Illan Meslier from Leeds this summer after David De Gea’s catalogue of errors against Sevilla.

The Reds were eliminated from the Europa League quarter-finals after De Gea made three errors, which has led to speculation about his long-term future at the club with his contract set to expire at the end of the current season.

And Collymore, writing in his Caught Offside column (21 April), believes Meslier could be a great option for them to develop into the type of goalkeeper they want despite his “very, very difficult season” at Elland Road.

“They [Manchester United] should be looking up and down the league,” he said.

“I know Emi Martinez has been rumoured but I don’t know if he’s the sort of keeper that Man United would go for.

“Obviously the likes of Meslier has had a very, very difficult season at Leeds but he’s still a baby. Would he be someone they’d look to develop?”

Interest

There has been rumoured interest in Meslier from a lot of top clubs in recent months, so it’s no surprise that Collymore would bring this up.

The France Under-21 international is quite clearly a very talented young goalkeeper, and Leeds have been lucky to have him in recent years.

But that doesn’t make the fact that he has conceded well over 100 Premier League goals since the start of last season, which does leave fans believing that we could do better with someone else between the sticks.

Meslier’s age means we could potentially get a pretty sizeable fee for him, especially with his contract running until 2026, and we could then use that to bring in someone more experienced and reliable.

Obviously we don’t want to help Man United out in any way, but if it helps us out in the long-term too, especially if we’re still in the Premier League, then it could be a mutually beneficial deal for everyone.

In other Leeds news, Phil Hay has shared an injury update that could rule one star out for the rest of the season.