Home » From Italy: Manchester United ‘confident’ Mario Mandzukic will join for £9m in January

From Italy: Manchester United ‘confident’ Mario Mandzukic will join for £9m in January

by Leo Nieboer

Manchester United will reportedly offer Juventus a fee of £9m to sign Mario Mandzukic in the January transfer window.

A deal for the striker, whose goal against England put Croatia into the World Cup final, was mentioned between the two clubs during negotiations for Paulo Dybala over the summer.

No such move materialised, however, due to the Mandzukic camp feeling rushed over the decision, along with Man United perhaps deciding to stay fully loyal to their policy of signing young British players who can develop over several years.

According to Goal Italia, United are confident that the £9m bid will be accepted, with the 33-year-old set to sign a deal which will see him earn £4.4m over one and a half years.


Do you think Mandzukic will make a move to Old Trafford? When claiming betting offers go to freebetinfo.com they’ve got all the latest bookies and as Mandzukic has moved further down the pecking order for the Italian champions, maybe now is indeed the time he will be moving on.

If Juventus are offering a player of such high pedigree to United in January for a cut price, turning him down would be an act of auto-defenestration from a club painfully struggling for goals. Moreover, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is right to focus on developing a new generation, it must be remembered that United have often benefited from signing experienced strikers with commanding personalities: Dimitar Berbatov, Robin van Persie, Zlatan Ibrahimovic are all examples.

In a team lacking maturity and confidence, Mandzukic might be considered a timely addition but regardless of whether or not he comes it is clear Solskjaer needs a real boost in the January transfer window.

United had a successful summer with the signings they did make but there were massive shortcomings in the club not signing a central midfielder or a replacement for Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez, as has been shown with the dire situation at United so far this season.

For some, Mandzukic would be seen as a panic signing by United and they’d probably be right. Solskjaer has left himself so short that any new striker will be a welcome addition and a new option for a manager who is quickly running out of them. Of course, an injury to Anthony Martial did not help Solskjaer, nor did Marcus Rashford’s woeful form, but a manager lives by his own decisions and Solskjaer is suffering the consequence of that.

No United fan is under any illusion that Mandzukic would be a brilliant signing but in a squad which has so few options, simply adding a new one into the mix can only really benefit the squad overall – in theory at least.

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