Man United fans can be forgiven for falling head over heels for the signing of Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian ace enjoyed an excellent 2016/17 season, and would have finished as the league’s top scorer had Harry Kane not been around.
But the signing of the former Everton forward has seen one question drift out of the fans’ minds: what happened to the Alvaro Morata interest? The Spaniard was a rumored target of the 20-time English champions, with the speculation only being killed by Lukaku’s move.
Jose Mourinho has now spoken to the press about his believed attempts to sign the Real Madrid attacker, confirming interest in the Blancos forward. According to the Special One, only one thing stopped the Red Devils from landing Morata: Real Madrid’s price tag.
The Portuguese boss admitted that Man United’s inability to reach an “economic agreement” with the Champions League holders saw the deal collapse: Mourinho said (as per the Mirror):
“I don’t like to speak about players who aren’t ours, because Morata is not our player. I am nobody to speak about players from Real Madrid. Yes, we have had interest, that’s obvious and it’s public.
“We’ve not come to an economic agreement, that’s obvious as well.
“But it’s a Real Madrid’s right to ask for their players the amount of money that they want. We do not determine what the price is of a player of Real Madrid, Real Madrid do that. And we didn’t arrive at an agreement with Real Madrid.
“I don’t criticise Madrid and I am not going to criticise my board because my board has made the offer, and they have tried to reach an agreement during a time, and they didn’t come to an agreement. It’s simple.”
Man United were reportedly ready to offer £65m for the wantaway Real Madrid forward. Zidane’s side, however, would not part ways with the 24-year-old for less than £79m.
Lukaku should be able to fill the goalscoring void in Man United’s attack. Furthermore, Jose hinted that Ibrahimovic could be handed a new deal, meaning Morata’s Old Trafford move is dead.
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