It reads the other way round Mandzukic plus £15m not Luiz plus £15m - Mandzukic is valued there are £15 - £20m, which is a little cheap I would imagine
Yesterday's big rumour was a new contract for Lukaku with him going back on loan, I would not be too disheartened by that to be honest, if we could sign Mandzukic in the Luiz deal. Luiz is looking highly likely to go, and getting Mandzukic AND 15M would be great business. Madzukic would be our Dzeko, as he scores goals despite not being the greatest player. I've always liked Rakitic, has that Modric style but he seems to have more goals in him, would be ideal for us and if he has on year left not too pricey either. T Hazard out on loan again would be great, but he does need to go to a bigger team, maybe someone like Leverkusen or even Wolfsburg, who will be in European action next season.
I'm sure i read ages ago that Hazard Jr said he'll be out on loan next year but in a more competitive league and definitely wont be returning to Belgium. The Lukaku contract is positive and i quite like the idea of getting Mandzukic and some cash for Luiz!
Is another Lukaku loan really going to add anything though? If he can't come back and compete after 2 very successful premier league loans then surely he's never going to? Especially when we are clearly going to need at least 2 strikers to replace probably Ba and Eto'o. Though there is the issue of the lads head dropping when inevitably he's on the bench most weeks as we only play 1 up.
If he rejoins Everton for the season the big improvement was he plays against European teams in the Europa. Would not be too bad if we loaned young Hazard to Hull, who will also play in Europe, at least two matches anyway. I think European experience is just as important as Premier League and both Lukaku and Hazard could do with some of that.
True though I'm not sure that in itself justifies another loan. Presumably we are going to have to bring in another striker anyway (outside of the obvious big name) so are we going to spend another 20 odd million on a striker just to allow Lukaku more time out on loan? What do we do with said striker in another years time if we decide we want Lukaku back? With FFP considerations as well, I think we either cash in if Jose doesn't rate him, or bring him back and give him games. He's premier league proven which a new striker is unlikely to be and costs us nothing. Hazard I agree with unless he has an amazing pre season with us. Everton again would be perfect as long as they can guarantee him games. Not sure playing in a team likely to be struggling will aid him to much (Hull)
Everton would perfect for Hazard Jnr. In Europa, play good attacking football and will allow him to play for a team that can and probably will take points from our title rivals (Like Everton did with Lukaku this year). Plus Everton like getting good loan players due to their lack of funds.
I really hope the Ivan Rakitic rumours are true. I've seen a lot of him and he has it all, he controls the games, can beat men, can pick a pass and can hit the back of the net. Spanish clubs are usually easy to buy players off so hopefully we go for him. He is what we lack in the centre of the park
i'd always known he was decent but watching more of him in La Liga this year and in the Europa final he has been magnificent every time. 12 months of his contract left, send them sicknote Marin and 10m in return and we solve a problem position.
Late edition newspaper in the Daily Express says Borussia Dortmund have dashed our hopes of trying to sign Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Good player but I don't see much truth in it to be honest
Lamps apparently set to sign a 1 year extension on reduced wages with appearance related bonuses. Looks a decent deal all round. The old guard obviously need phasing out but with Ash already set to leave, 1 year deals for Terry and Lampard look sensible. Also keeps our home grown tally up and much needed experience around the place. I expect Lampard will have a similar role to this year in the team. Sad to see Ash go but he's too good and on too high a wage to be sitting on the bench. Chelsea legend, just hope he goes abroad! Wonder if we'll be in the hunt for a left back or have faith in one of the left backs out on loan? If we buy, I think Contrao at Madrid would be a good option as Shaw looks too expensive.
Alberto Moreno, Ricardo Rodriguez or even Filipe Luis will be targets if we do. Pretty sure Ronaldo has stopped Coentrao going anywhere.
twitter rumour on the united board that we're in for Shaw now with talks due next week. Probably nonsense but if not, perhaps we were waiting to see what happened with Ash.
It's been reported locally(Hull) that we have made a loan approach for Hazard jnr. Though it's also been rumoured that we've inquired about Kalas on loan.
Hopefully they will both come off as both clubs could seriously benefit from them. Hazard ran the show at Zulte last year although i've not seen him play that much and Kalas looks a real talent.
