Napoli star fancied to be Man United’s midfield riddle solver

With the trail rapidly cooling on Juventus pair Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba, Manchester United boss David Moyes is thought to be considering a swoop for one of Serie A’s other top attacking midfielders to help invigorate his limp-looking central midfield.

Napoli’s Marek Hamsik is the latest name to enter the Old Trafford transfer reckoning, as Juve insist Vidal is simply off limits, whereas the fee the Old Lady would likely demand for former United player Pogba will be verging on astronomical.

Contrastingly, whispers from Italy suggest the Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis could be prepared to listen to offers in the region of £25m for Hamsik, which is more in line with the war chest Moyes has been issued.

Hamsik is an exciting talent and one manager Rafael Benitez will be particularly reluctant to let go, as the former Liverpool boss regularly uses the Slovakian in a role similar to the one he deployed Steven Gerrard in, off Fernando Torres, in his Anfield days.

This is mainly to use his substantial goal threat for a midfielder, an area Moyes really needs to address with the likes of Michael Carrick, Steven Fletcher, Tom Cleverley, Marouane Fellaini and even Shinji Kagawa failing to contribute goals regularly.

However, Hamsik’s abilities are not limited to a purely attacking role having been deployed as a more orthodox central midfielder by his previous manager.

This adds obvious attraction for Moyes as Hamsik could be deployed as part of a midfield two, still allowing Wayne Rooney to play in his favoured number 10 role.

With the January transfer window passing the halfway mark the clock is ticking for Moyes to land a big name, as he bids to rescue Man United’s Premier League season by making the top four – a challenge rated at 9/4 with Ladbrokes.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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