Manchester United are ready to press ahead over talks with Holland coach Louis van Gaal.

The Daily Mail says Van Gaal and Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti are top of United's shortlist of candidates to replace David Moyes. The club are known to want a new manager in place as soon as possible to avoid the mistakes made last summer, and Ancelotti's commitments will now extend to the final in Lisbon on May 24.

United are understood to have delayed Van Gaal's appointment to see if Ancelotti would emerge as a genuine alternative or, at the very least, to use him as a bargaining chip in their negotiations with the Dutchman.