'Going to be difficult' - Matthijs de Ligt gives honest answer about Manchester United progress this season

Matthijs de Ligt has warned it will take patience for Manchester United to challenge at the top of the Premier League again.

Erik ten Hag oversaw a disappointing Premier League campaign last term, but he was backed to remain in charge after a stunning success in the FA Cup final against Manchester City.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has opened the chequebook in his first summer as co-owner at Old Trafford as United have signed Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, De Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui, and their signing of defensive midfielder Manuel Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain is now imminent.

Those five signings have cost €214.5million (£180m) without factoring in the add-ons and Ten Hag has no more excuses, as he has received heavy financial backing over three summers.

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After signing from Bayern Munich, De Ligt sat down with Optus Sport at Carrington to discuss his first few weeks in Manchester and he said: "It's an amazing experience. It's a really big club.

"Obviously from the outside you know it's a big club, but when you're in here, you feel the love from the fans, the atmosphere in the stadium and the professionalism in training and I've been really enjoying it until now.

"He [Ten Hag] made me captain at Ajax, also in my time at Ajax he gave me a lot of confidence, a lot of motivation to lead the team, so this summer, when United came for me... it made it really easy for me to get to the Premier League first of all and secondly, to the biggest club in England.

"For me, it was a really easy choice to make. I actually grew up watching the 2007/2008 Champions League when they won it, Cristiano scored the goal