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What's the story?
Jose Mourinho has scanned his midfield up and down, noticed Michael Carrick limping around Carrington on those classy, but ageing, knees and has decided enough is enough - I want a pass master in my side to complement the brute force of Nemanja Matic, the technical brilliance of Paul Pogba, the bite of Ander Herrera and the all-around awesomeness of Marouane Fellaini... and he has zeroed his sights on one of his former employers' current employees.
Toni Kroos is living a relatively happy life at Real Madrid winning Champions Leagues by the basketful and complementing it with a league title last year, but the serene German playmaker's life is set to be disrupted if the good folk over at Calciomercato are to be believed.
As per the good folk over at Calciomercato, Jose Mourinho has up and decided that Kroos is his no.1 target and will likely meet Madrid's €91 Million (or £80 Million) valuation for the German.
In case you didn't know
Toni Kroos has been in fine fettle over the past few years at Madrid and while his statistics may not be impressive enough for a select bunch of people who believe those numbers are the be all and end all of the game, those who watch him play week-in and week-out know just how important he is - making Real Madrid tick with his incisive passing and quite incredible vision and technique on the ball.
The heart of the matter
This won't be a straightforward deal, though.
Relations between Manchester United and Real Madrid have been strained for quite a while - Sir Alex Ferguson wasn't too happy with their dogged pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo (and even David Beckham before that) but things came to a head when United stood their ground and steadfastly refused to sell their superstar goalkeeper David De Gea and the relationship has been frosty ever since.
Video
Here's Kroos, being Kroos... i.e. utterly magical
Imagine this in a midfield alongside Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba... woof!
Author's Take
I imagine everyone at Real Madrid - from Zinedine Zidane to Sergio Ramos (those corners the German whips in, how Ramos loves them) - will fight tooth and nail to keep Kroos tied down at the Bernabeu, but if Messr. Mourinho and Woodward can convince Kroos to switch the sun of Madrid for the rain of Manchester... magic would start happening at Old Trafford and every one of the Red Devils would see their game improve a notch.
