Man United will have to spend big for Kevin Strootman, says James Pallotta

Roma president James Pallotta says Manchester United will have to pay a "huge" fee to sign Kevin Strootman.

Despite spending £153m on seven new players, Louis van Gaal still has money to strengthen his squad and defensive midfielder Strootman is one of the players on his shortlist.

The United manager knows Strootman well from his time as Holland coach and is interested in signing the 24-year-old once he makes a full recovery from the cruciate ligament injury that ruled him out of the World Cup.

Manager Rudi Garcia said Roma would not sell the player for less than €100m (£77m) last year and Pallotta’s comments in an interview with Bleacher Report suggest the club are still holding out for a enormous fee.

Roma signed Strootman from PSV Eindhoven for €19m (£14.75m) in 2013. The Holland international played 25 times for the Italian club last season but only started two games this term due to his serious knee injury.

Pallotta also insisted another of his star players, Miralem Pjanic, will not be leaving the club this month despite reported interest from Liverpool.

Meanwhile United midfielder Angel di Maria has urged fans to forget about the old United style as manager Louis van Gaal is creating something new. Under the lengthy reign of Alex Ferguson, the Red Devils developed a certain way of playing which brought untold success and silverware to Old Trafford.

Since his departure, the club have gone through a period of significant readjustment during the ill-fated short-lived tenure of David Moyes and now Van Gaal But Di Maria has advised supporters who continue to harp back to the days of Ferguson’s football they are wasting their time.

“From the start of the season to now, you can see we’ve grown,” he said.

“We weren’t so great at the beginning but we’ve started getting a few victories under our belts. There are some people saying that we’re not playing in a particularly good style or that it’s not the old United — but it’s not. We’re beginning something new here. We’ve got a new style, we’ve got a new manager and we’re all working hard to make sure we’re putting United back where it belongs.”