Chelsea
Man Utd Ready To Hijack Chelsea’s Move For 26-Goal Striker
Manchester United are ready to hijack Chelsea’s attempts to sign Romelu Lukaku after ditching plans to land Antoine Griezmann this summer
Managers are now pressing ahead with their plans for the summer transfer window so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip from around the globe. Today, Man Utd are ready to step-up their interest in Romelu Lukaku…
Manchester United are ready to hijack Chelsea’s attempts to sign Romelu Lukaku after ditching plans to land Antoine Griezmann this summer, according to the Daily Star.
United have been strongly linked with a move for Griezmann in recent months after watching the Frenchman develop in to one of the best forward’s in world football at Atletico Madrid.
However, the Daily Star claim Jose Mourinho has been forced to shelve his plans to sign Griezmann and prioritise a new No.9 after Zlatan Ibrahimovic was ruled out for the rest of 2017 with a knee ligament injury.
The Swedish hitman is also out-of-contract so United need to find themselves a new target man and not splash out on a luxury No.10 like Griezmann – although this news comes after it was confirmed that Atletico’s appeal against their transfer ban was rejected so the Spaniard’s are highly unlikely to sell now they can’t replace the French striker.
Either way, it looks like United are now in the market for a more traditional No.9 and the Daily Star claim Mourinho has set his sights on a move for Everton’s Romelu Lukaku.
The Belgian international enhanced his reputation as one of the best strikers in the Premier League after scoring 26 goals for the Toffees last season and he’s attracted interest from several top clubs.
Chelsea have been touted as the front-runners with the Evening Standard reporting last week that Antonio Conte has stepped-up his interest in luring Lukaku back to Stamford Bridge after making him his No.1 target.
The Italian coach has just led the Blues to their fifth title but he knows he needs to further strengthen his squad ahead of Chelsea’s return to the Champions League and Lukaku would give them a serious alternative to Diego Costa.
However, it looks like Chelsea will now face stiff competition from United and the Red Devils have plenty of experience in dealing with Lukaku’s agent as Mino Raiola negotiated Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s moves to Old Trafford last summer.
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Raiola confirmed yesterday that Lukaku has been promised that he can leave this summer if ‘certain clubs’ come in for him. He’s quoted as saying by the Daily Star:
“Lukaku had a promise that if certain clubs came this summer that he could leave this summer.
“We are not in concrete talks with anybody at this moment, but hearing the market I think some clubs will contact Everton
“If the price is right for Everton and the project is right for Lukaku then I think he will want to make another step, but we are not there yet.”
We’ll have to wait and see how things develop but it looks as though United and Chelsea are now set to battle-it-out over Lukaku’s signature this summer and I think he’d be a superb signing for either club.
