Manchester United reportedly poised to make £30m bid for Luke Shaw

The Luke Shaw saga has taken another twist today, with the Guardian's Jamie Jackson reporting that we'll return to Southampton with a £30 million bid for the young England left-back -- a £3m improvement on the offer we had rejected earlier in the week. However, we'll only apparently make the offer once Louis van Gaal is confirmed as Ryan Giggs' successor, which, according to Jackson, shouldn't be any later than Thursday.

That's an awful lot of money for an 18-year-old, who will reportedly become the highest-paid teenager in "domestic football history" with a salary of £100,000 over five years. It's a deal which was apparently enough to entice him away from his boyhood club Chelsea.

There's no doubt that Shaw has a bright future ahead of him, and he should become a sound long-term investment. But one can't help but wonder whether it'd be more prudent to take less of a risk by buying a cheaper left-back -- Sead Kolašinac of Schalke and Ricardo Rodríguez of Wolfsburg would almost certainly be available for cheaper than Shaw -- leaving us with more to spend in more pressing areas. Food for thought for United's hierarchy.