Manchester United Transfer News: Angry Louis Van Gaal Raises Angel Di Maria Fee
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has demanded an extra £3 million from Paris Saint-Germain in their purchase of Angel Di Maria after the winger underwent his medical with the Ligue 1 club without permission.
The Argentine had reportedly been given permission to talk to PSG concerning a transfer. But Van Gaal was apparently furious when Di Maria posted a photo of himself in Doha, Qatar, where he was having his medical, per the Independent:
As a result, the Dutch manager raised the asking price for Di Maria from £43 million to £46 million, per David Maddock in the Mirror.
The switch is still expected to go ahead, ending a miserable single-season stay for Di Maria at the Old Trafford club.
The 27-year-old is clearly satisfied with the switch, having hailed the French champions on Tuesday, per BBC Sport's Oluwashina Okeleji:
United are still set to be hit with heavy losses on the sale of Di Maria—they signed him from Real Madrid last summer for £59.7 million—but Van Gaal has seemingly managed to limit the damage slightly.
Di Maria started brilliantly upon his move to Manchester, scoring three goals and providing three assists in his first five games for the club, per WhoScored.com.
However, things went south after his positive start as he lost form and looked physically unable to handle the Premier League.
He is a fantastic player and could thrive in Ligue 1. Indeed, French newspaper L'Equipe is hyping him as the player to take PSG to the next level, via Sports Witness:
As Maddock noted, Barcelona's Pedro is being lined up by Van Gaal as Di Maria's nominal replacement, and the Spaniard should add a significant amount of goals to the Dutchman's squad, per Bleacher Report's Andy Brassell:
It is something of a surprise that a player of Di Maria's quality failed to make the grade at Old Trafford.
He leaves in somewhat acrimonious circumstances but will surely be happy to bring and end to a less-than-stellar episode in his career.
