Rumour: Premier League clubs doubt De Ligt move due to super-agent Raiola

Bengaluru, Feb 11: Ajax defender Matthijs De Ligt has been a hot cake in the transfer window for quite some time after he expressed his desire to move away from Ajax in the upcoming season.

Europe’s big boys are chasing the 19-year-old Ajax captain who is regarded as the next big thing in the continent. Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham are all are said to be tracking his progress while Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain are believed to have already registered official interest in the £50million-rated centre-back.

Barcelona are another club proclaimed to be keen on the young defender who will be allowed to follow close friend Frenkie de Jong out of the Amsterdam Arena in the summer.

But according to reports, all the English sides are making a step backwards as they are reluctant to do any business with the Dutchman's current agent, Mino Raiola.

Raiola is regarded as one of the cult football agents, however, has developed a strained relationship with some of the top clubs in England. Raiola fell out with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola over Zlatan Ibrahimovic when the Spaniard was Barcelona coach in 2011. The Monaco-based agent even branded Guardiola as “a coward and a dog” earlier last year.

United used him to get three of his clients in the same window with Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Ibrahimovic but had to deal with various personal demands of him. Moreover, the Red Devils' hierarchy became wary of dealing with Raiola after discovering he had been touting Pogba to Europe’s top clubs after the French midfielder’s war of words with Jose Mourinho.

Arsenal similarly found Raiola a difficult individual to work with when Henrikh Mkhitaryan moved to the Emirates as a makeweight in the deal that took Alexis Sanchez to United.

After all such incidents in England regarding Raiola, it is understood to be a concern while dealing with the Super-agent. He could deny De Ligt a dream move to the Premier League.

City are in the market for a new central defender, with veteran defender Vincent Kompany soon out of contract and struggling with injury while United, Arsenal and Chelsea are also in need of defensive reinforcements. But looking at the situation, they might have to look for other alternatives due to such bad experiences in the past with the Dutch agent.