The Premier League club Manchester United have reached an agreement with Dynamo Kiev to sign central defender Aleksander Dragovic, according to the Daily Express.

The 23 year old Austrian international only joined the Dynamo Kiev 18 months ago, and he is reported to have an agreement on personal terms in place with the Old Trafford giants.

Daily Independent and other English tabloids have linked Manchester United with a move for Mats Hummels in recent months, but nothing has come out of the speculations. That the club have decided to settle for a player that is entirely different in status and quality shows how far Manchester United have fallen in the last 18 months in the eyes of certain players.

The failure to secure Champions League football last season meant they had to spend over the odds for certain players and the pursuit of Mats Hummels has been meant with a snub from the German international.

Dragovic have been tracked by several Premier League clubs in 2013 before he joined Dynamo Kiev from Basel, but he is still a relative unknown in football terms.

However, United’ finances has been helped by new commercial deals that have increased the clubs revenue in other aspects and the same cannot be said of some buys in the last transfer window. The club can boost of high quality players in the final third, but the same cannot be said of the situation at the back, where the inconsistencies of Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo have been very obvious despite the huge sums spent on the duo.

Several clubs in the past have shown that, failure to qualify for Europe’s premier competition could be costly on the playing side, especially as it concerns the quality of players that can be signed.

Although, Angel Di Maria was signed without Champions League football, same as Radamel Falcao, their signing holds much to circumstances as Manchester United were in the frame for both players when the interest of other clubs such as PSG had cooled before they were signed.

Without doubt, champions League football is amongst the things top players look at before signing for a club, that can only be mitigated against by spending lots on wages and transfer fees as in most cases, the players hold much of the ace in such situation.

Manchester United fans would have been looking at the club to see how the issues in defence would be addressed. But a move for Aleksander Dragovic would be seen as step lower than the link of Mats Hummels in the last couple of weeks. A place in the Champions League could change all that next season, but for now, signing of lower tier players is it.