Sidney Sladen
Manchester United are believed to be preparing for life without their talismanic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has not yet signed a contract extension with the club. Zlatan’s contract expires in the summer and has not yet chosen to activate the one-year extension that is available for him to activate.
This has reportedly prompted Mourinho to look for alternatives, with Romelu Lukaku being the top target, according to the reports from Daily Star. The Belgian informed Everton that he will not be staying at the club beyond this summer, citing the Toffees’ ambition as the reason for his decision to exit the club.
Manchester United seem to be looking at the possibility of signing Lukaku as a potential replacement for the giant Swede.
Lukaku will not come cheap but his price would relatively go down as he is looking for a move away from Merseyside. But the pressure on Lukaku will be extremely high when he arrives at Old Trafford as he will be tasked with replacing Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the lead striker of Manchester United.
Though there will be no shortage of supply from the Man Utd midfield, the weight will be too much for Lukaku to carry and there is no guarantee that he will succeed at Old Trafford.
However, there is no doubt that Romelu Lukaku is a quality player and though he may struggle, he might eventually click at United.
Jose Mourinho has worked with the Belgian striker during his time at Chelsea but Lukaku moved to Everton in search of regular football.
Lukaku has scored 19 goals in the league this season so far and is the joint-top scorer in the league, alongside Harry Kane. With Harry Kane injured, Lukaku is the front-runner for the Premier League Golden Boot and winning that will surely give the striker so much confidence going into next season.
Whether or not Mourinho decides to go for Lukaku, it is important for Manchester United to either keep hold of Zlatan or replace him with someone as good as him. If not, all the momentum that United have created this season will go for a flop, as the onus will be on the new striker to deliver.
The best choice for Jose would be to keep hold of Zlatan and buy a new striker, so that the new signing will have some time to settle down.
