Jose Mourinho wants to partner Antoine Griezmann with Alvaro Morata in new-look Man Utd strike partnership Matt Law, football news correspondent
27 APRIL 2017 • 11:58AM
Jose Mourinho wants Antoine Griezmann to form a new Manchester United strike partnership with Alvaro Morata, which offers Real Madrid encouragement in their pursuit of David de Gea. Atletico Madrid forward Griezmann has long been identified as United’s top summer target and the Frenchman is in line to be handed a contract worth around £17 million-a-year, over £300,000-a-week, at Old Trafford.
Following the injury to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, added to the expected departure of Wayne Rooney, Mourinho wants another striker who can play just in front of Griezmann and has identified Morata.
As he plans for a Premier League title assault and European football next season, either in the Champions League or the Europa League, Mourinho feels he needs three forwards at the club who all offer something different. The Portuguese is excited by the thought of having Griezmann, Morata and Marcus Rashford at his disposal.
Spain international Morata is seeking to leave Real Madrid this summer and had told friends that he believed he would join Chelsea, who bid for him 12 months ago. But Chelsea’s interest has cooled as they have identified Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez as targets ahead of Morata, which leaves the door open for Mourinho to try to bring him to England. United have also been linked with Lukaku, but the Belgian has set his heart on returning to Chelsea and Mourinho rates Morata higher. Morata has seen his opportunities limited at Real this season, but has still scored 18 goals for the La Liga giants.
Real are thought to value Morata at around £40m and hope that United’s interest will help smooth De Gea’s path to the Bernabeu. The signs in recent weeks are that Mourinho may be willing to let De Gea join Real this summer and replace him with Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak. There were claims this week that Oblak representatives flew to England for talks regarding a potential move to United.
United are also cautiously optimistic that they may be able to persuade Tottenham Hotspur to sell Eric Dier, who they will promise a midfield spot to, with a bid in the region of £40m.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/04/27/jose-mourinho-wants-partner-antoine-griezmann-alvaro-morata/