A lot better looking than Pepe
According to The Times, United have made Porto an offer for their 25 year-old defensive midfielder João Mountinho.
The former Sporting player who is capable of filling a number of midfield positions was one of the shining stars at Euro 2012, where he did the job of protecting the Portuguese defence while also providing ammunition in starting attacks.
Ever since the departure/injury of Owen Hargreaves, the Reds have lacked a natural defensive midfielder, with Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick both filling the role that is arguably not best suited to them.
Fletcher is often more of a box-to-box type who has suffered his own injury nightmare, while Carrick, despite having an excellent season last time round, isn’t a natural ball winner in the mould of your typical DM.
United’s bid is know doubt a tentative offer to test Porto’s resolve as the player is highly thought of by the Portuguese side and one of their key players. Logic suggests that an offer of around £25-27 million may be nearer the mark to getting the club to sell Moutinho.
It’s not all plain sailing though, as Andres Villas-Boas, the new Spurs’ boss and Moutinho’s former manager is rumoured to also be preparing a bid for his former player, let’s just hope United now haven’t reached the point we can’t even compete with Tottenham in the transfer market.
Watch this space…..
yeh if utd cant get mourtinho god help us we’ve missed out on so many players down to glazers and debt its joke..i am well happy we’ve got kagawa but what if hes ill,injuried then who we got new no one,we need mourtinho another class CAM midfielder. if its roomers utd may sign a 2nd or 3rd signing still hope we can pull this 20 odd million off & then focus on next signing
IT IS A SHAME THAT A TEAM LIKE MAN UTD CANNOT COMPETE WITH A TEAM LIKE TOTTENHAM ON THE TRANSFER MARKET.REALLY A PITY……
i wouldnt call him a defensive midfielder, his more of a playermaker a bit like Modric but seemingly half the price (if this and other reports are true which is rarely the case.)
his looks a great player if he can make the jump but we should of been after him 2 years ago when we could of got him for under £10m.
hopefully Fergie wasnt being too literal with one or two players as we need 4 really.
we need a playmaker but the position where we need someone the most is a defensive midfielder a M’Vila, Javi Martinez or Tiote.
after that a LB and a striker/winger would be nice but we could get by without them.
once again we have no clue if the money is there but if it isnt we need to be looking at cheaper players or making decisions of players like Anderson.
this whole adding class to the team is great but we seem to end up chasing players we could of bought for less if we has taken a gamble. Newcastle have landed some top talent without breaking the bank, while we have sat on our hands and theres no way there scouting network is better than ours.
Playmaker? Kagawa?
Find out how many assists Kagawa made vs how many goals he scored @ Dortmund last season and you’ll understand.
My only problem is if we sign Moutinho. We’ve already signed kagawa, this team will look very small and vulnerable to set pieces. I mean if you put together a best 11 the only players with some height, would be the 2 centre halves and Carrick if he plays.
@Nathan I don’t think vulnerabilty will be a problem, if you look at teams like barcelona. They play their football and most of their players are under 5ft8. Moutinho would be a good buy. Plus a more aggressive midfielder and a left back.
The guy is smarter than modrick.Its good business
@Creatifariste. Yes but remember the premier league is much more physical than spanish football. In La Liga there aren’t any teams who play like stoke.
Very true, but if you think about it. Do you think stoke could ever think to beat Barcelona?
Non
A very tidy and intelligent player. Moutinho would be a good addition and would add something different to the midfield. He is similar to Modric and hopefully we can wrap up a deal for around £22-23 million soon. We then need to move onto securing Leighton Baines and then another attacking player, either James Rodriguez or Lucas Moura.
Ideally we would do a double deal with FC Porto and get Moutinho and Rodriguez together. We should push to do a deal worth £45 million + Anderson and get it done.
A good signing but I would also like to see another midfielder like either Witsel or Fellaini.
We cannot afford to rely on Scholes, Giggs and Park to shore up our midfield.
We will then be strong in defence and midfield and Rooney, Hernandez and Welbeck are strong enough until Will Keane is fit. Then we will be complete.