It’s been long into the season with Jose Mourinho’s midfield problem, and now he is looking to fix it by spending an audacious amount of £35m to sign Barcelona midfield dynamo, Ivan Rakitic to Old Trafford.
According to Spanish newspaper Don Balon, Jose is keen on signing the playmaker who moved to Nou Camp in 2014 from Sevilla. He has had a successful career so far in Spain and is currently under contract with the Catalans until 2019.
Jose Mourinho should count himself lucky, as his club has decided to back him yet again with an expensive amount to land a player of his wish in January to robust the squad. According to Daily Records, executive vice-chairman, Ed Woodward is all prepared to allocate significant funds to the transfer fee and wages.
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With only seven clean sheets and Chris Smalling and Eric Bailly out injured, the signing of the defensive midfielder would be a cherry on the icing for the Portuguese manager. The 28-year-old could be dubbed as an ideal replacement to fill in the void left by United’s veteran midfielder Michael Carrick who entered the final few months of his contract.
According to Sun Richard Marsh of Ladbrokes News said, "Jose can't rely on Michael Carrick forever, and the arrival of a player of Rakitic's calibre would certainly go down well at Old Trafford."
Arturo Canales, Rakitic’s agent, however, claims that he is happy to stay at Barcelona amidst all the speculations as he said, “Ivan is very happy at FC Barcelona, where he has been tremendously successful and has a contract with the club until 2019."
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Contrary to Luis Enrique, Mourinho would be attempting to play the Croatian international alongside Pogba to give his midfield the right balance and consistency. Rakitic would compliment the £89m record signing and also allow the Frenchman to take the role of a floater, giving him more creative freedom on the pitch.
United are currently ahead in the betting to land Rakitic, ahead of Juventus at 5/1 and PSG at 6s, Manchester City and Arsenal are 7/1 and 14/1 respectively.
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