By now, everyone should know Jose Mourinho wants to sign Alvaro Morata. “The Special One” identifies the Spanish forward as the perfect replacement for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, especially now that Wayne Rooney might leave Old Trafford as well.
However, several experts have debated how much should Manchester United pay for the striker. If we look at the transfer market, we see teams are spending more and more money each year. And if we consider that Manchester United recently had a €70 million offer for Morata rejected, things get tricky.
Mourinho might believe Morata fits exactly on what he wants to do next season. But does he really want to overpay that much? Morata is only 24, and even though he has shown flashes of being a world-class forward over the last few seasons, €70M is a lot of money. To put things into perspective, that transfer would make him the most expensive player in Spain’s history. And since Real Madrid already asked for a better offer, we could be talking of an €80M or €90M bid. Only a few players in the world are worth that much money. And sadly, Morata is not one of them.
If we look at the rest of the Premier League, we can see other teams have also spend money for reinforcements on the attack. Arsenal just signed Alexandre Lacazette for €70 million. Liverpool acquired Mohamed Salah for €39 million. And Manchester City signed attacking midfielder Bernardo Silva for nearly €50 million. Considering Lacazette cost €70M, do United really want to spend nearly €80M on Morata?
I would call that a huge mistake. It is quite simple, really. Lacazette is a more accomplished player than Morata, so why should United pay MORE for a player who is LESS than what direct competition has signed? It does not make any sense.
Per reports, United are not willing to increase the bid further than €75 million for Morata. And the player has said he wants to come to Old Trafford as well. But the main problem here is that Morata does not have a choice. Real Madrid will ultimately decide his fate, but one thing is clear. United should not get into a bidding war for the striker.
He might be a talented player, but the only team that will lose in a potential bidding war are The Red Devils. And there could be better options available for that kind of money.
I agree totally.
It seems to me that Madrid are being deliberately awkward,most likely to do with the DeGea situation.I hope that this is remembered if and when the keeper is sold and we totally rinse them on the price.
Although we can certainly afford to pay the full price that doesn’t mean we should.There are other areas of the team in need of upgrades and like you,I don’t think Morata is so good that we should break the bank.we should walk away from this leaving Madrid with a disgruntled Morata on the books,then see what develops.
A much cheaper option might be Chicharito,available for a relatively tiny £13 million and we know exactly the qualities he’d still bring to the side.As for further additions I’d far prefer a return to the Fergie/Gill era where we looked to buy up and coming players to turn into superstars.Rashford is good enough to start and Martial can be utilized in his preferred position when,as expected a new winger comes in.
Ultimately the cause of this holding us to ransom can be traced back to Woodward and his ridiculous posturing about how much we can spend,it’s time we went back to the methods that served us so well during many years of success.