According to reports from Mirror Football, Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is hoping to lure Arjen Robben away from Bayern Munich amid his search for a new winger.
The Old Trafford gaffer has made no secret of his desire to sign another wide-man in January, particularly one that offers scintillating pace, having told reporters after a 2-0 win over West Brom earlier this month; “You have seen that now we play with Jesse Lingard and he is not the most speedy winger in the world and Mata is also not the most speedy winger in the world. So first we must first finish that problem and then we can see how we have to play and how we are in balance with playing with speedy wingers.”
31-year-old Robben certainly falls into that category and he’s also one of the most proven wingers in European football, having represented PSV, Chelsea, Real Madrid and current employers Bayern Munich, as well as the Netherlands national team on 88 occasions, throughout his trophy-laden career.
Robben was brought to the Allianz Arena by van Gaal in summer 2009 and served under the United boss at the 2014 World Cup, where he scored three times in seven appearances to help Oranje claim third place at the tournament in Brazil.
That is the level of talismanic form van Gaal hopes his old ally can contribute at Old Trafford, having seemingly grown disillusioned with his current wide options. Adnan Januzaj is spending the season on loan at Borussia Dortmund, Juan Mata’s lack of pace has been commented on countless times this term, Anthony Martial is proving more influential as a centre-forward and summer signing Memphis Depay, despite the fanfare surrounding his arrival, hasn’t started a Premier League game since the start of last month.
Robben has rebuffed advances from United before but Mirror Football claim the Premier League giants are hoping to capitalise upon the winger’s apparent fallout with star striker Robert Lewandowski.
The Poland international – who boasts the most league goals of any player in Europe’s five leading top flights this season – has reportedly ‘made it clear’ that he prefers to play alongside Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman because Robben is too selfish. The veteran winger, meanwhile, is only interested in playing regular first team football for the Bavarians and won’t put up with the rule of understudy to Costa and Coman for much longer.