The likes of Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal had a quiet January transfer window, but a number of Premier League clubs are expected to be a little busier in the summer

Manchester United are set to return for Borussia Dortmund star Donyell Malen over the summer but could have competition from Liverpool and Arsenal, it has been claimed.

Dutch forward Malen was linked with a January switch to Old Trafford in a potential swap deal with Jadon Sancho, but ended up staying in Germany and playing in the same team as the England winger.

He has scored seven times since the turn of the year, including in the Champions League round of 16 tie against former club PSV Eindhoven, to bring his tally for the season up to 13.

Another of his former clubs, Arsenal, are now also thought to be in the mix for a player who can do a job all across the front-line. The Gunners have had little trouble finding the net this season, but central strikers Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah have just nine Premier League goals between them.

According to reports in Germany, the 25-year-old would be allowed to leave Dortmund for the right price. And Liverpool are also said to be in the mix, having been linked with Malen before he opted for Dortmund in 2021.

Bild (via The Mail) reports that £51.3m could be the magic number needed to land Malen in the summer. That isn’t the only obstacle for Liverpool, though, with questions remaining over who their manager will be next season.

It doesn’t appear as though any of the potential suitors would be able to land the forward on a cut-price deal, though. Dortmund chief Sebastian Kehl is said to be in no rush to offload a player who is under contract until 2026 and has scored 32 times in 105 appearances since moving to Germany.

Malen is part of the Dutch squad for their upcoming internationals against Scotland and Germany. He is very much in the mix to feature at Euro 2024, having missed out on the 2022 World Cup.

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Malen spent time with Arsenal as a youngster before leaving in 2017 (
Image:
Yifan Ding/Getty Images)
Malen has four goals and one assist in his last four Bundesliga outings. The assist came over the weekend, in a victory over Eintracht Frankfurt which ensured Edin Terzic’s team go into the international break in the top four in the table.

Karim Adeyemi, Mats Hummels and Emre Can all found the net as Dortmund rebounded from conceding an only goal to their former player Mario Gotze. Malen, who started the game out on the right, set up Adeyemi’s goal after bursting past his man to get to the byline and giving his colleague a simple finish.

“It was a tough game,” centre-back Hummels told DAZN (as translated by club media). “But we’ve won our last four games and now go into the international break feeling much better than we thought we would a few weeks ago.”