After the transfer of David Luiz, which cost the team £50 million, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) withdrew from Angel Di Maria's bid. Since then, Manchester United has been identified as the frontrunner in the bid to sign the 26-year-old Real Madrid midfielder. Moreover, the transfer window has been aggressively utilized by United in the past few weeks as exhibited by the team's determined pursuit to sign quality midfielders, defenders and wingers. However, United lost the chance of signing Thomas Vermaelen to Old Trafford as FC Barcelona successfully sealed the deal with the central defender.

Louis van Gaal wants United to bid high and aim to sign excellent players in order to fulfil his philosophy of playing a 3-5-2 system. At present, the team is playing a 3-4-3 formation due to the lack of players fit to comply with van Gaal's strategy. Hence, the manager has been eyeing new players capable of resolving the team's weaknesses. It is this mindset that prompted United to bid for Di Maria, who has been recognized to be in the same league as Cristiano Ronaldo. However, this undertaking definitely puts into question the financial ability of United.

To be able to go through with this deal, the team will have to break the world record transfer of £85 million set by Real Madrid for Tottenham's Gareth Bale. On the other hand, Ronaldo has been rumoured to be considering a return to United after his transfer to Madrid with a hefty transfer margin of £80 million. His comment, 'you never know', has been analysed as a probable indicator of a comeback to Old Trafford.

"At this moment, we have five number nines and four number 10s - and we don't have wingers to give us attacking width," van Gaal told reporters, as quoted by Goal. "Or, I should say, we don't have wingers of the highest level, like Ronaldo or Di Maria or somebody like that," he added.