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Football

27th Mar 2018

Manchester United to battle PSG and Real Madrid for leading Serie A midfielder

He's been on United's radar for a long time.

Kyle Picknell

He’s been dominant in the Italy this season.

Manchester United are set to go toe-to-toe with two other European giants with more money than sense over star midfielder and human high-score in Scrabble, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, according to James Richardson’s favourite Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport.

The Serbian plays for Lazio, and is currently leading their charge to finish in the Champions League spots in what looks set to be a tight finish in Serie A. Simone Inzaghi’s team are currently one point away from fourth behind Inter.

United have been linked with the central midfielder for some time, and he is exactly Mourinho’s type of player. He’s 6 foot 4, dominant in the air and covers a lot of ground, as well as being an incredibly tidy passer and a threat from long range, too.

They won’t have it all their own way in their pursuit of him, however, as PSG and Real Madrid also like the look of the 23 year old. The confusing part for fans of the Red Devils is the fact that the Serb is very similar in style to their own Paul Pogba, who they spent almost £90 million on in 2016.

With Los Blancos and Les Parisiens also in pursuit and the transfer market being what it currently is, a sugar-fuelled child with a fiver let loose on some pic ‘n’ mix, it seems a similar fee would be required to convince Lazio to sell. He is under contract until 2022 and has scored 11 times and assisted 7 in all competitions this season.

A Matic-Pogba-Milinkovic-Savic midfield looks extremely good on paper, if a little top heavy. Oh, and tall. Very, very tall. That should make Mourinho happy for a little while, at least.