Man United compete with Liverpool for Ibrahima Konate as Red Devils plan to replace unhappy Eric Bailly

RB Leipzig's Ibrahima Konate is on everyone's radar. Red Bulls of East Germany have the best defence in Bundesliga and the French defender is one of the reasons for such statistics.

It has been written lately that Liverpool are extremely interested. However, numerous reports state that Liverpool's biggest rivals - Manchester United - are after Konate.

One of the reason Red Devils are looking for a defender is the still unclear situation with the Ivorian Eric Bailly.

Konate has been a long time target for Jurgen Klopp, with the Reds hoping to land the France Under 21 defender in the next transfer window for around 55 million USD (6 billion KSH).

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But according to Eurosport they may have to fight off Manchester United for his services with their bitter rivals now having the highly rated centre-back 'on their radar'.

Although United have previously shown interest in Konate, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may now take his interest further as he considers freshening up his back four.

The report claims that while many inside Old Trafford consider Bailly to be part of United's strongest defensive pairing along with Harry Maguire, Solskjaer has tended to prefer Victor Lindelof alongside the England international.

Ivorian Man Utd defender Eric Bailly does not intend to accept the new contract

Bailly has just one year left on his deal, and although the club are keen to extend that, he is growing 'frustrated' at his lack of first team chances, with Inter Milan now monitoring the situation.

United are also considering other options in the transfer market including Real Madrid's Raphael Varane and Sevilla's Jules Kounde but Konate could be their ideal choice this summer.

Liverpool have been long time admirers of the 21-year-old, and have been favourites to land him in recent weeks, eager to get a move completed before the transfer window opens.

Jurgen Klopp has been dealing with a crisis at the back all season, with injuries to both Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez.

With Leipzig not in a position of having to sell, any buyer will have to pay Konate's release clause of 55 million USD, rather than trying to negotiate a lower asking price.

RB Leipzig has done a lot of work on the transfer market recently - Dayot Upamencano is already a Bayern Munich player (sold for 50 million USD, will stay in Leipzig until the end of the current season), Mohamed Simakan was snatched from AC Milan even thought Rossoneri were certain they will bring Simakan from Strasbourg, Ajax's great talent Brian Brobbey has been signed for free...

Let's just see if Leipzig will eventually do some business with the Reds or the Red Devils. Or maybe even someone else.