Matteo Darmian makes personal plea to Jose Mourinho to push through Juventus transfer

Matteo Darmian is pushing for an exit from Manchester United this summer with Juventus said to be interested in signing the right-back as a replacement for Manchester City bound Dani Alves.

Alves will leave the Italian champions this summer after they agreed to terminate his contract and he is expected to join Pep Guardiola's team on a free transfer.

Juventus are looking for a replacement and have identified Darmian as the candidate to replace the departing Brazilian. The United defender, who impressed under former manager Louis van Gaal, has been a bit part player under Jose Mourinho having made just 18 appearances last season.

Moreover, the 27-year-old was played out of position at left-back by the Portuguese manager as he looked for options to cover for his regular left-back Luke Shaw, who was out injured for most of the campaign. Darmian did impress on the left flank, especially during United's Europa League final victory over Ajax, but he is unlikely to be used in that position as a regular once Shaw is fit again or Mourinho brings in a replacement for the Englishman.

According to the Sun, Darmian has personally called Mourinho and asked his manager to sanction the move to Juventus as he is keen to play regular football. The defender is fearful that if he continues his bit-part role next season, he will miss out on a place in the Italy squad for the World Cup in Russia next summer.

Antonio Valencia is United's first choice right-back and the Ecuadorian is likely to continue in his position next season, which will mean Darmian will be relegated to the bench again. The report claims that the move will be an initial loan deal for one season with Juventus having the option of making the deal permanent for a fee of around £17.5m ($22.2m), which is £5m more than United paid for the defender when they signed him from the Turin club's city rivals Torino in 2015.