Manchester United’s pursuit of Thomas Muller has been given a welcomed lift after his Bayern Munich captain Philipp Lahm admitted a deal is possible this summer.
Reports emerged from Germany on Monday evening suggesting United had offered a British club transfer record €100m (£69.5m) for the 25-year-old’s services.
However, it might take even more money to convince Bayern to part ways with the Germany international, having insisted they would no longer do business with the Premier League outfit following Bastian Schweinsteiger’s move to Old Trafford earlier this month.
“In football you can imagine everything,” Lahm said in a news conference in Shanghai on Tuesday “It’s not my decision. In football, it goes so, so quickly.
“It’s not always only up to the player. There are clubs who get players, players go.”
“In football everything goes very, very quickly. I think you can never give a guarantee that it will work like this or like that.
“As a result, I certainly can’t give you any guarantee for Thomas Muller or talk about whether I can imagine [him leaving]. You can always imagine anything happening.”
Van Gaal has reportedly been keen to reunite with Muller ever since he was made United boss last summer. The Dutchman blooded Muller into the Bayern first-team in 2009 and since then only five players have scored more goals in the Bundesliga than Muller (71).
For more stats on Thomas Muller, click here to visit his WhoScored player page