Manchester United Set to Hijack Arsenals Bid for Julian Draxler - Report

Manchester United have joined Arsenal in the race for Schalke midfielder Julian Draxler, according to the Mirror.

David Moyes has stepped up his interest in the German and sent his scouts to watch the player in Schalke's 2-1 win over Augsburg last week.

The manager is planning a major splash in the summer to rebuild his squad, which has a lot of dead weight in its current form, with the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra expected to leave the club in the summer.

Their midfield is also in need for a complete overhaul, with the likes of Anderson, Tom Cleverly and others not playing upto standards defined by the United of recent years.

Draxler, who can play behind the striker or on the flank, will give United some much-needed flair, something which has been missing from their game.

However, it will be difficult for Moyes to prise the midfielder out of Schalke, with Arsenal and Bayern Munich also interested in his services.

The midfielder is expected to be available for a fee in the range of £37m with Arsenal having already failed with a bid for the player in January.

The 20-year-old is also leaning towards a move to the Emirates, stating earlier in an interview that he is in regular contact with the Germans in the Arsenal squad and would welcome a move to north London.

The German has scored one and assisted six this season from 18 appearances but has missed a major part of this season through a knee injury.

"I've said every summer I have to look what is the best for me and I will do in the summer again and we will see what happens," Draxler said.

"I have always said English teams are very big clubs and Arsenal is of course one of them. Of course I sometimes speak to Mesut or Per about the team, about the club, and they always have good words and they tell me nice things.

"You never know what happens in the summer but Arsenal is a very, very nice team. They always have very young players, they play attractive football and that's what I like.

"But I better not speak too much about it because tomorrow I can read that I like to play for Arsenal. I think the people at Schalke would not like to hear that," he said.