It seems Jose Mourinho will continue to his spending spree coming January. Manchester United can’t wait for the transfer window to open and might well be the first club in the league to get their business done next month.
As per reports, long time United’s target, Victor Lindelof, is all set to hold crunch talks with his current club, Benfica, about his £38million move to Manchester United. The Sweden international could be the most expensive defender in Manchester United’s history if the deal goes through. United last spent such an amount for defender Rio Ferdinand (£30m) in 2002.
Touted by many as the next big thing in football, Mourinho has been a long-term admirer of the player and wants him alongside Eric Bailly at the back line. Although anything concrete is yet to be announced, Jose Mourinho has stated that he would be quite active this transfer window and Lindelof’s agent has given sufficient indications about a foreign club’s interest.
His agent, Hasan Cetinkaya, although didn’t take any names, but has confirmed more talks are due to take place between all parties involved in the coming days, and said, “I will not comment on specific clubs. I can only comment that there is a bid for Benfica’s table, they can consider. And I’ll be meeting with Benfica also.”
The Swede could be their highest-paid player at the back with a reported wage of £140,000-a-week in a five-year deal. The amount would nothing impossible for a club United and a manager like Mourinho, who has previously got the backing of executive vice chairman Ed Woodward and the Glazers when he splashed a mammoth £157million last summer.
The defender is 6 ft. 2 inches and looks the perfect option to shove off the regular aerial threats in Premier League matches. With superbly-timed tackles and constant pressure on the opponents to win the ball, Lindelof looks like just the player United are missing at the moment.
Marcos Rojo, though quite decent in recent games, has never looked the right technical enforcer. With Smalling slowly returning from injury, Lindelof will only have Phil Jones to beat to get a place in the first team.
Although Benfica, or any other club, would hardly consider selling one of their prime player mid-seasons, especially when they have qualified for the knockout stages of the European campaign, United’s financial prowess could break that quite easily as was evident from last summer.
