Reports say United and Arsenal defensive target undergoes contract talks

Ron Vlaar may not be the most exciting name Manchester United have had linked over the past few months, but let's be reasonable. Our defence is terrible, Vlaar is a very capable player for the Netherlands and holding together a woeful Villa side, and he'd clearly improve us for a bit and offer some leadership.

The good news is that his contract is up at the end of the season, so he'd be a free transfer. But there are two bits of bad news. Firstly, Arsenal are also interested, and secondly, Villa are working to tie him down to a new deal, as well one might expect.

While it's not the most inspiring choice, it's a bad market for central defenders at the moment, and with most of the other options now non-starters, we could certainly do worse. But we'll need a lot more than that to patch up our broken defence going forward.