Man Utd are preparing an initial bid worth £46.8m-£51.1m to sign Everton defender, Jarrad Branthwaite, according to CaughtOffside.

The Goodison Park outfit rate their 21-year-old defender highly, pricing him at around £80m but the Red Devils are not willing to meet the fee.

Transfer: Man Utd contact ‘already done’ – Expected to move ‘forward’ to sign £85.2million star – Reports

As per a recent story covered by talkSPORT, the Old Trafford outfit are confident they will be able to hire the services of the English center half.

Bayern Munich, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea are also monitoring the youngster, who was fantastic for Everton in the last campaign.

Man Utd must sign a top defender to replace Raphael Varane, who recently announced his departure from the club. In such a scenario, Branthwaite could be a long term solution.

Everton have financial concerns that saw them suffer points deduction last term. Therefore, they could sell some of their star players to balance the books, and Branthwaite could command a good fee to that effect.

Man Utd have their own issues to sort, first the future of Erik Ten Hag and then the budgetary constraints to reinforce the squad.

The Old Trafford outfit leaks goals on regular basis, even against teams much weaker than them. Without strengthening the backline, they can forget about challenging for the title anytime soon.

Have your say – How much do you think Man Utd should pay to sign Jarrad Branthwaite?