It turns out, Man Utd has failed to bring in Tielemens from Aston Villa twice.

Manchester United's new midfielder Youri Tielemens. (X/@ManUtd)

JAKARTA - Manchester United has apparently been eyeing midfielder Youri Tielemens for a long time. Even Man Utd has made two offers but failed. Man Utd finally managed to bring Tielemens from Aston Villa after paying the player's release clause.

It's hard to bring Tielemens to Old Trafford. Man Utd has done it twice in the era of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and then Erik ten Hag.

It is not without reason that the Red Devils are hunting for the captain of the Belgian national team who has spent his career in the English Premier League for seven and a half years. Tielemens is a versatile midfielder. He used to be a defensive midfielder, but was no less impressive when playing as an attacking midfielder.

This makes Tielemens always take an important role when the team makes a transition. Not only that, he has an accurate long shot. This is clearly an important capital for Man Utd who often score goals when counterattacking or successfully making a transition under manager Michael Carrick.

Moreover, the 29-year-old player was able to show consistency in performance in the Premier League. Tielemens played a big role in helping Villa win the Europa League trophy. He also scored a goal and opened Villa's victory in the final match when he beat Freiburg 3-0.

After two failed attempts, Man Utd finally got Tielemens. Only, the three-time Champions League champion had to redeem the player's contract clause of 35 million pounds.

Yes, the club can't do anything if it opens the player's release clause in the transfer market. If someone redeems it, the club that owns the player must definitely let him go without any negotiations or price negotiations.

"I have actually negotiated with the club twice. It's just that there has been no progress in our talks. At that time I had never even talked to Solskjaer," Tielemens said as quoted by The Sun.

"Even though I failed, I was still calm and didn't think about it. I'm sure if it happens [transfer] it will happen. I have indeed been associated with the club [Man Utd] before. But everything failed. And as you can see, I still work hard and try to play as well as possible. Then everything happened," he said.

Interestingly, Tielemens didn't even know that Man Utd had recruited him. He actually got the news from an agent because Tielemens was focused on the 2026 World Cup.

"All of that was my agent who negotiated and completed the transfer. I completely left it to him. Moreover, at that time I was focused on the World Cup and finally received the happy news after everything was settled," said the former Leicester City midfielder.

Moving to Man Utd makes Tielemens a reunion with defender Harry Maguire and assistant coach Jonny Evans. Evans is a former Man Utd player and played for Leicester for five years before returning to Old Trafford. Meanwhile, Maguire is the backbone of the Foxes defense and became the most expensive defender in the world when he was brought to Man Utd.

He then met with Carrick to discuss his future at Man Utd. "You always want to know what the manager thinks about you before signing a contract. In addition, it is important to have a good relationship with the manager," he said.

"He (Carrick) wants me to play freely on the pitch and tries to organize the game as best as possible. Obviously he has principles and I have to obey them," said Tielemens, who admitted that he was proud to join Man Utd.

"This is certainly a great achievement if a player can end up here [to become a Man Utd player]. It means you have a good career. Moreover, the club has been monitoring you for a long time. But this is not the end. I definitely want to be successful here. Of course this takes a process," he said.