Rooney bait for United’s Lukaku swoop
JOSE MOURINHO deal.has made Everton striker Romelu Lukaku his top summer target and is ready to offer Wayne Rooney as part of the
Everton are demanding £100million for Lukaku as Manchester United and Chelsea covet the Premier League’s top scorer.
But the Old Trafford side want to pay much less and may propose an agreement that would enable Rooney’s return.
United value their all-time record goalscorer at £17m, but Rooney, 31, is likely to demand a sizeable payoff to cover the final two years of his £250,000-a-week contract.
Everton are reluctant to offer more than £10m for Rooney, who will have to take a £100,000-a-week pay cut if he returns to his boyhood club.
Rooney accepts he will leave United this summer despite claiming earlier this week that he wants to stay at the club.
But the England international is determined to go on his own terms and will not accept being a makeweight — unless the deal is right. While a return to Everton appeals, there may be more lucrative options on offer in China and America’s Major League Soccer.
Mourinho wants to sign two strikers this summer and has put Lukaku, who has refused to sign a new Everton deal — at the top of his wish list ahead of Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann. He sees the 6ft 3in Belgian as a long-term replacement for Zlatan Ibrahimovic — regardless of whether the Swede plays for United again after knee surgery.
Mourinho let Lukaku leave Chelsea for Everton for £28m in 2014, but is ready to battle his old club for the 23-year-old.
It will mean doing more business with Mino Raiola, Lukaku’s agent who also represents Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Sportsmail revealed earlier this week that Raiola earned a £41.39m cut from Pogba’s move to United last summer alone.
Lukaku would give Mourinho the physical target man he likes his teams to have after bemoaning the lack of ‘killers’ at United in recent weeks.
United have scored 51 goals in the Premier League this season, one fewer than Bournemouth, and trail well behind the top-four clubs, who have all surpassed the 70 mark.
After seeing United struggle to overcome a Celta Vigo side lying 12th in La Liga for a place in the Europa League final, Mourinho moaned: ‘Our story this season was normally when we play very well we don’t score enough goals.’
United face Ajax in the final in Stockholm on May 24 and Mourinho will make changes for United’s last three Premier League fixtures against Spurs tomorrow, Southampton and Crystal Palace to keep his first-choice team fresh.
United will take at least 10,000 supporters to Stockholm, but have scrapped their staff trip to enable as many fans as possible to attend the showpiece.
The club receive tickets for staff, players and directors but are foregoing almost all of their staff allowance for the final. Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward sent an email to staff yesterday morning explaining they have taken that decision to make sure a greater number of genuine fans can be at the final, with a party planned back in Manchester instead.
It means more than 9,000 Reds should make their way to Sweden, with thousands already buying tickets in the neutral end from UEFA’s website.
Sportsmail has been told any further reductions to the capacity owing to segregation will be put in place at the Ajax end. Two-thirds of the stadium will be taken up by the ‘football family’, with sponsors given 11,000 and a further 17,000 going on general sale.