Manchester United make Reus enquiry.

THE INSIDER: The Red Devils may not have made any sizeable January purchases but they did use the final days of the winter transfer window to put plans in place for the summer

Manchester United may not have made a big splash in the January transfer window but they have already started laying the groundwork for a bumper summer.

The Insider has learned that the 20-time Premier League champions were in contact with Borussia Dortmund over the weekend to enquire about the availability of Marco Reus.

The Germany International is set to leave Signal Iduna Park at the end of the season, with a buy-out clause set at just �25 million.

His low asking price has alerted Europe's elite clubs, including Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, but United have also been monitoring the situation for some time and have now made contact with Dortmund to ascertain the player's current situation.

The German club's sporting director, Michael Zorc, has maintained a defiant public stance amid intensifying speculation, and, in January, moved to deny talk of a deal with Madrid.

"Almost every week I hear about such rumours," he said. "There's no new developments, we want to continue working with Marco Reus for the long haul."


Zorc also believes he can keep the forward beyond the next transfer window but Dortmund officials, with their club bottom of the Bundesliga table, are aware that the vultures will be circling come the end of the season, whether they are relegated or not.

The level of United's spending will be determined by their finishing position in this season's Premier League table.

Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, who long insisted that there would be no January arrivals unless priority targets became available, has warned investors that the club's projected profits and losses depend on a third-place finish.

Subsequent transfer spending would therefore be impacted by a failure to achieve that, let alone finish outside of the Champions League qualification places.

Reus's Dortmund team-mate, Mats Hummels, is Louis van Gaal's key defensive target and, barring a significant change in approach over the coming months, will be the subject of serious interest come the end of the season.

Roma midfielder Kevin Strootman is another long-term target but the Dutchman will miss the rest of the season following a set-back in his recovery from a serious knee injury, meaning United will have to reassess their options.

A move for Juventus's Arturo Vidal faltered last summer amid claims that Van Gaal harboured doubts about the state of the Chilean's knee, and with it now likely that Strootman will be unable to prove his fitness until well into the 2015-16 season, a decision will have to be made regarding the viability of a summer switch to Old Trafford.

Reus, too, has had his own struggles with injuries in the last year, having missed the World Cup and large portions of the current Bundesliga season with ankle problems.