Manchester United transfer news: Mourinho quickly turns from Griezmann to Perisic

Due to the transfer ban on Atletico Madrid being upheld, the Spanish side’s reluctance to let their star scorer leave grew in an instant. Therefore, Manchester United looked to Italy for their first signing of what figures to be a busy summer.

In a move that had been rumored for weeks, Manchester United has agreed to terms with winger Ivan Perisic. The Croatian international has spent the past two seasons with Inter Milan after coming over from Wolfsburg in 2015. The fee is reported to be 52 million pounds.

Over the past two seasons he has scored 20 goals in all competitions for Inter, including 11 this season in 42 appearances. He spent time on the left side this season in Inter’s two striker system, which means that he will likely line up on the left wing in a 4-2-3-1 which United employed many times this season or as a left forward in a 4-3-3. With Zlatan Ibrahimovic out until at least January that likely means a lot of playing time next to Marcus Rashford if United does not sign a big name striker.

This is not good news for Anthony Martial, who has fallen out of favor this season with Jose Mourinho after leading the team in goals two years ago under Louis Van Gaal. Mourinho has said he would be open to selling the Frenchman, and I think it’s clear that he does not have a future at Old Trafford.

Mourinho seems to have taken much more of a shine to Rashford, who scored five goals this season to Martial’s four in league play. If Martial is put on the market, I imagine there will be plenty of teams interested.

Potential destinations

Perhaps Arsenal if Alexis Sanchez departs (which seems likely at this point), but one scenario that is interesting is a swap with Everton of Martial and a fee for Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian was second the Premier League this season with 25 goals but rumors of him leaving Goodison Park have been swirling for some time. There are rumors linking Lukaku with a return to Chelsea, but perhaps he would shed the blue for United red.

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For Martial, this would give him a fresh start and put him in a place that I think he would be well suited to succeed in. He joins fellow Frenchman Morgan Schneiderlin as players United let go to join the other side of Merseyside. He would once again be the focal point of the offense in a 4-3-3 and be playing alongside Enner Valencia and Kevin Mirallas.

For Lukaku, he seems to have put the past dust-up with Mourinho behind him. So if they work things out, then Lukaku would be back with one of the biggest clubs in England and give United the elite scoring threat they lacked. With all due respect to Ibrahimovic, he often did not keep up with the pace of the younger players and in the middle of the season looked worn out in some games. The skills were there, but the legs just weren’t. With Lukaku you are getting someone who has proven himself in the Premier League, unlike someone such as Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid.

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Back to Perisic, he looks like a solid addition but like fellow winger Henrikh Mkhitaryan last season, he doesn’t look to the biggest fish brought in. We’ll see how the rest of the summer unfolds but this is an exciting move to start the summer for the United faithful.