Man Utd Steal March On Liverpool & Chelsea After Tabling £53m Bid For Wantaway Star

There is plenty of Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea gossip doing the rounds in the papers with the English giants linked with a whole host of star names. Today, United have made their move for Mateo Kovacic….

Manchester United have stolen a march on Liverpool and Chelsea after launching a £53.4m bid to sign wantaway Real Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovacic, according to various reports.

Kovacic was considered to be one of the most exciting young talents in European football when he joined Madrid from Inter Milan in 2015 but his time at the Bernabeu hasn’t gone to plan as he’s struggled to establish himself as a first team regular.

The 24-year-old was restricted to just 10 La Liga starts last season with Luka Modric, Casemiro and Toni Kroos all well ahead of him in the pecking order and his first team chances don’t look any brighter under new boss Julen Lopetegui.

Kovacic has gone public with his desire to leave Madrid this summer in search of regular football and his situation has alerted clubs here in the Premier League as the Daily Mail via TeamTalk claim Chelsea have joined Man Utd and Liverpool in registering their interest.

The newspaper says new Blues boss Maurizio Sarri is lining-up an offer for Kovacic after identifying him as a potential replacement for Danny Drinkwater and Tiemoue Bakayoko – with the midfield duo tipped to leave Chelsea this summer.

Jurgen Klopp has already spent heavily on Naby Keita and Fabinho but the Liverpool boss is reportedly still eyeing Kovacic as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is set to miss the entire season, James Milner is coming towards the end of his career and Adam Lallana has been plagued by injury problems.

It looks like Manchester United have stolen a march on their rivals as Marca claim the Red Devils have now tabled an opening £53.4m [€60m] offer for the Croatian international.

Jose Mourinho has vented his frustration with United’s lack of activity this summer with Fred the only significant addition so far but it seems the Manchester giants are trying to further strengthen with Kovacic firmly on their radar.

However, United may have some convincing to do as Marca suggest that Kovacic is reluctant to move to Old Trafford as he isn’t convinced Mourinho’s style of play will suit him.

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This could leave the door open for Liverpool or Chelsea to swoop in and sign Kovacic ahead of United but we’ll have to wait and see if any of the three English clubs are able to get a deal agreed with Madrid first.