United moving for Dutch World Cup star - reports

Five days now. Five long, empty days. Five days of Louis van Gaal have come and gone and Manchester United have yet to sign a Dutchman. All that avaricious time spent during the World Cup -- yep, we'll have him, and him, and him, and oh, yes, definitely him -- has so far been in vain.

But that may be about to change, at least if the Mirror's information is good, with the purchase of Stefan de Vrij from Feyenoord. De Vrij, who you may recall scoring the Netherlands' third goal against Spain back in June, is apparently Van Gaal's second choice to reinforce central defence, since Mats Hummels "has no intention of leaving Borussia Dortmund". He would also be significantly cheaper: apparently a £10m move to Lazio has been agreed in principle, but the player is dragging his heels, having been "assured" that Old Trafford will be in touch.

(Other sources suggest that Feyenoord have in fact rejected Lazio's offer as too low. Pick your favourite.)

The Mirror then go on to state that United will be moving for AS Roma midfielder Kevin Strootman in January -- *steps carefully around "double Dutch"* -- assuming he makes a full recovery from his knee injury. And as if that weren't enough, they also note that De Vrij and Strootman, along with Ander Herrera and Luke Shaw, all have youth on their side, and quote a senior United source as saying "Money is available, but age is a big factor". So we can probably chalk Arjen Robben off the list.