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What’s the story?
Reputed English daily, The Telegraph, are reporting that Real Madrid and Manchester United have agreed on a deal over Alvaro Morata. The Spaniard has seemingly agreed on terms with the Premier League club, while the two clubs themselves have almost agreed upon a €73 million deal for the Spanish international. Although Morata had been most closely linked with AC Milan, he himself seemed to rule that move out by saying:
“It's hard to imagine going back to Italy, despite my experience in Serie A being extraordinary. The only club for me in Italy are Juventus.”
Seeing as how Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been released by United (as confirmed by the Premier League), Jose Mourinho is hell-bent on getting a quality replacement striker with Torino's Andrea Belotti also on the radar.
In case you didn’t know
Alvaro Morata’s agent, Juanma Lopez, had earlier confirmed that his client was looking for potential suitors when he said: “He doesn't want to go through another season like that. It was a great season, but he wants to play more,” said Lopez. “Alvaro is a player who wants to play a more important role. He wants to play more. That's normal for a striker who's scored 19 goals. It's not enough.”
The striker was, in fact, Real Madrid’s second-highest scorer for the season despite playing very few minutes. His 15 La Liga goals have come at an astonishing 89 minutes per goal, a rate bettered only by Lionel Messi (amongst those who have scored at least 10). He also had 4 assists to add to that tally.
The heart of the matter
Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s unlucky ACL tear accelerated Manchester United’s search for a top-class striker and having worked with him before Mourinho appears comfortable with the idea of the combative Spaniard leading the line at Old Trafford. Marcus Rashford, the United player most likely to suffer from the signing, said that “At a big club you are going to attract big players and that's what we want” and that competition was essential to improve oneself as a player.
It’s this kind of attitude that has endeared Rashford to Mourinho and the Portuguese probably sees a strong partnership developing between Morata and Rashford – whose qualities complement each other.
Video
Here’s a sample of what Morata can do –
Not too shabby, eh?
Author’s Take
Alvaro Morata is definitely an A-grade striker and it’s understandable that he feels he’s too good to play second-fiddle (which will likely be the case if Karim Benzema is still around). The Real Madrid youth academy graduate (promoted to the first team by Mourinho incidentally) will have the hunger and drive to show he deserves to start for the best clubs in the world and this is exactly what Mourinho would be looking for as the club prepare for a real siege on Chelsea’s crown next season.
