EXCLUSIVE: United target maestro Modric as Ferguson plans to overhaul his squad
By Ian Ladyman
Last updated at 2:05 AM on 30th May 2011
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson will begin a summer of significant rebuilding at Old Trafford with a £20million bid for Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric.
Ferguson will join his players in an open-top bus tour of Manchester to celebrate capturing a record 19th league title recently but United thoughts will still be on Saturday night’s dismantling in the Champions League final at the hands of Barcelona.
Nevertheless, Ferguson is already planning for the future and is poised to open negotiations with Tottenham for Modric, a player he has admired for a long time.
With the Scot telling friends recently that he may continue at Old Trafford for as long as three more years, he knows that he must add to his squad if he is to close the gap on Europe’s No 1 team Barcelona.
With United also poised to bid for the Aston Villa forward Ashley Young, a move for Modric would appear to indicate that Ferguson feels he needs a greater variety of attacking options.
Certainly at Wembley on Saturday, United’s forward players Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez, Antonio Valencia and Ryan Giggs hardly caused the Barcelona defence to break sweat.
United will face stern resistance from Tottenham when they open the bidding for Croatian star Modric as they have already taken Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov from White Hart Lane in recent years.
Modric, 25, is also under contract until 2016 and has stated that he is not looking to leave.
Also, Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy wrote in the club’s matchday programme recently that the club would not sell their best players this summer.
In all likelihood, it will take a bid in excess of £20m if United are to have a chance of twisting Tottenham’s arm.
Saturday’s defeat was a chastening one for United and appeared to indicate that another Barclays Premier League title has merely papered over a few cracks when it comes to real quality.
Ferguson has a smattering of players who are surplus to requirements at the moment and it is clearly going to be an important summer.
Once more there would appear to be some debate over the future of Berbatov as Ferguson left him in the stands as Michael Owen was given a place on the substitutes’ bench. Berbatov’s team-mate, Nani said: ‘I don’t know what he has in mind but everyone knows he’s a fantastic player.
‘He has scored a lot of goals for us, finished as the top scorer in the league, and I would like him to play for Manchester United again next season.
‘I don’t know which players will be coming in but most important is that the ones who stay fight for us.’
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