Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The hunt for a new forward at Manchester United is beginning to intensify, after the setback of Antoine Griezmann declaring his future to Atletico Madrid for at least another 12 months and Gareth Bale also set to stay in Madrid for next season the options available for Jose Mourinho are beginning to diminish.
Add to the fact that Romelu Lukaku has all but intimated that he is ready to move to champions Chelsea and that is another name that Mourinho will have to cross off his summer shopping list while of course not forgetting the fact that the club released Zlatan Ibrahimovic yesterday after not awarding him a contract extension.
That means the clamour for a marquee signing is building as United look to bridge what was a very wide gap between themselves in 6th place and Antonio Conte’s Chelsea last season and that has meant that Mourinho has once again averted attention to Madrid.
This time though the courting is for Alvaro Morata as Mourinho looks set to offer him the perfect opportunity to be player first team football each and every week. The Spanish international chipped in with 20 goals in all competitions but still cannot call a starting eleven berth his own.
That is because his path is blocked by Karim Benzema whose future is assured for as long as Florentino Perez is the owner of the club, it was Benzema who was the first in this second generation of Galacticos to arrive at the Bernabeu and he is something of the owner’s pet.
With that being the case it means that more often than not Morata has to make do with a place on the subs bench, if that was a couple years ago then it would have been a fair enough expectation but at the age of 24 he is now itching to be involved each week.
Not only that but he has already left the Bernabeu once in a search for first team football so to come back and have the route blocked off again must be incredibly frustrating for the recent Champions League winner and it is here where United can step in.
They are ready to bid £60m to acquire the services of Morata and bring him to Old Trafford, it is a move that will be appealing for a number of reasons but also the forward will be mindful of the fact that with next season being a World Cup, he will have to play as regularly as possible to make sure he is selected in Spain squad.
On the balance of probabilities and working on the assumption that Morata was fit he would be called up to the final 23 anyway but it is more the issue of wanting to play as the undisputed number one striker, something that Mourinho and United can certainly offer.
Not only that but napping on the heels of Morata in the Real Madrid pecking order is that of Marco Asensio, the 20 year old bagged scored the fourth and final goal in their resounding win over Juventus last week and he will be pushing for an increased role in the Los Blancos team next season.
Therefore with the La Liga champions having an embarrassment of riches already before even managing to land any transfer targets of their own it is felt by the clubs hierarchy that Morata will be the one that is sacrificed due to the return they can receive from any sale of the player.
Considering United were ready to spend £85m on Antoine Griezmann this will arguably represent better value, you could argue that he is a level below the French international but I think that can be counter balanced by the fact he will only improve should he play week in and week out.
It looks like this could be a move that suits all parties and will certainly fill the attacking void at Old Trafford, it must be noted though that this deal would run completely separate to any potential deal which would see David De Gea move in the opposition direction.
