Chicharito Hernández is the nº9 that Real have been looking for as a finishing touch to the team before the summer market comes to a close tomorrow. 'Los Blancos' are at present deep in negotiations with Manchester United to get the deal done in time.
Real have been combing the market for a striker able to replace Benzema. This has been Ancelotti's wish ever since the sale of Morata to Juventus, and the suits at the Bernabéu want to keep the manager happy.
Real have all their faith in Jesé, despite still not having fully recovered from his injury. For this reason, the club is only looking for a loan-deal with a player who is well aware that his role will not be that of the starting striker, but more that of a super-sub. Real, waiting for Jesé to get back on form, will not accept anyone with pretentions to be the star of the show.
Chicharito is one of the names on the table. The Mexican is surplus to requirements for Van Gaal, scores well and should be happy to take more of a back seat at Real.
Italian newspaper Tuttosport suggest that Van Gaal is ready to table a £40m offer before the deadline in an attempt to prise him away at the last minute.
However, the indications are that even at such a figure the Old Lady's stance remains the same and they will keep hold of Vidal at all costs.
Manchester United have won the race to sign Radamel Falcao from Monaco on a one-year loan deal. The striker will cost the Old Trafford club £12million and follows Angel di Maria, Daley Blind, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera and Marcos Rojo in joining manager Louis van Gaal at the club.
The 28-year-old Colombian has yet to agree personal terms - he will reportedly earn £200,000-a-week - but that is expected to be a formality and he is believed to be on his way to Manchester in a private jet.
The potent striker had been expected to join Manchester City on deadline day while Arsenal also entered the race late last week.
But United threw their hat into the ring amid fears of persistent niggling injuries to Robin van Persie and will offset Falcao's arrival by selling Danny Welbeck while Javier Hernandez has joined Real Madrid.
Indeed, Madrid were frontrunners for Falcao and the player himself posted - and later deleted - a tweet on Saturday appearing to confirm the move.
But the Spanish giants, who sold Di Maria to United for £60m last week, instead opted to sign Hernandez who had struggled to force his way into Van Gaal's plans.
After completing his move, Falcao will join up with his national team ahead of their friendly against Brazil in Miami on Friday night.
The clash will be a repeat of the World Cup quarter-final which Brazil won 2-1 although Falcao missed the tournament through injury.
Falcao became the youngest debutant in the Colombian second tier when he played for Lanceros Boyaca in 1999 at the age of 13.
He joined River Plate in 2005 for £300,000 and spent four years in Argentina before moving to Porto for £3m. Seventy two goals in just 87 games thrust him into the spotlight as one of Europe's hottest strikers and Monaco pounced last year, paying a reported £47m.
But despite his palatial surroundings in the tax haven, Falcao was desperate to challenge himself in a more demanding environment and is believed to have reduced his demands in order to secure a move before the transfer deadline on Monday night.
United's poor start to the Premier League season continued on Saturday when they drew 0-0 with new boys Burnley at Turf Moore.
The stalemate highlighted Van Gaal's problems up front with his side having scored just two goals in their opening three games.
On Sunday night, City had moved into pole position to land Falcao, who is rated at £50m. But their deal was dependent on Alvaro Negredo returning to Spain with Valencia.
Director of football Txiki Begiristain is understood to have held talks with Monaco officials at last Thursday’s Champions League draw in the principality.
City would have had to sell Negredo and possibly two more in order to sign Falcao on a permanent deal and still meet the £49m net spend limit set by UEFA’s financial fair play rules but that would have been avoided had he joined on loan.
Earlier, Sportsmail revealed that Arsenal initiated first contact with the star's advisers on Friday, informing them of their desire to take the striker on loan, not a permanent deal.
And Juventus also negotiated with Monaco but were left frustrated at the French club's refusal to pay part of the striker's wages during a potential loan deal.
Di Maria added: "Louis van Gaal is a fantastic coach with a proven track record of success and I am impressed by the vision and determination everyone has to get this club back to the top - where it belongs. I now just cannot wait to get started."
United manager Van Gaal praised Di Maria as "a world-class midfielder" but added "most importantly he is a team player".
"There is no doubting his immense natural talent," continued the Dutchman.
"He is a tremendously fast and incisive left-footed player who puts fear into the most accomplished defence. His dribbling skills and his ability to take on and beat opponents are a joy to watch. He is an excellent addition to the team."
Di Maria is the sixth most expensive global signing ever, topped only by the big money paid out by Spanish giants Real and Barcelona.
Real signed Gareth Bale for £85m, Cristiano Ronaldo for £80m and James Rodriguez for £63m, while Barcelona paidbetween £65m and £75m for Luis Suarez, and £71m for Neymar.
United last broke the British transfer record when they paid Leeds £29.1m for former England defender Rio Ferdinand in 2002.
The Old Trafford club have spent £131.7m since last season, having bought left-back Luke Shaw, midfielderAnder Herrera and Di Maria's Argentina team-mateMarcos Rojo for a combined £72m this summer.
He joined Real from Benfica for £36m in 2010, and won La Liga in 2012 and the Champions League last season.
Former Real president Ramon Calderon said on Sunday that he did "not like" the idea of Di Maria leaving, adding: "Normally a club who owns the very good players don't like to sell them."
However, in an open letter to Real fans published in Spanish newspaper Marca, Di Maria claimed that he did not want to leave the club.
"I want to make it clear that this was never my desire," he wrote, before claiming that "many lies" were spoken about his departure and admitting that he was saddened not to be offered a new contract.
"The only thing I asked for is something that would be fair," he added.
There will be a press conference at Old Trafford on Friday to announce a Manchester United signing – it is a contract extension if we are splitting hairs – although this one won’t be of any use come Sunday at the Stadium of Light.
Apollo Tyres, India’s largest tyre manufacturer in case you were wondering, let it be known yesterday that it was extending its sponsorship deal with the club; which is, at the very least, big news in the world of Indian tyre manufacturers.
The sponsorship rainmakers of Old Trafford, based in the club’s Mayfair office, keep those commercial endorsements coming. If only making signings were that simple for Louis van Gaal and his vice-chairman Ed Woodward, who find themselves hurtling towards the end of the transfer window with one home defeat, an unfit teenage left-back and an uncapped Spanish midfielder to show for their labours this summer.
So begins the renewed pursuit of Angel Di Maria, despite him not really being what United need at this stage of their putative rebuilding. Judging by his reluctance to force through a move to Paris Saint-Germain earlier in the summer, he is not that keen on leaving Real Madrid either. But the mood at United is rather like it was in January when they acquired Juan Mata, also not quite the kind of player they needed then. The imperative then, as now, was that Manchester United started behaving like Manchester United again: spending big money on big players
United have always struggled to sign the very best players from Europe, missing out on the likes of Ronaldinho
Signing Di Maria would be a statement, but a statement of what? He is a fine winger and he is available, just as Mata was available in January. There is no shame in picking up Madrid’s cast-offs when one looks at Arjen Robben’s post-Real career. The bigger question is about United’s long-term position in the world transfer market.
In his column for The Independent last week, Paul Scholes asked why one of Cesc Fabregas and Toni Kroos, both long-term United targets, had not been signed this summer. United have always struggled to sign the best overseas players on the market, throughout the modern era under Sir Alex Ferguson, and now, as the club try to establish themselves post-Ferguson, it is becoming even more of a problem.
Over the club’s transfer history since the turn of the millennium, United have been successful in signing most of the best English players when they come on the market. Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Alan Smith, Michael Carrick, Owen Hargreaves, Phil Jones, Ashley Young and Luke Shaw. They have signed many of the best Premier League-based foreign stars who have been made available: Louis Saha, Carlos Tevez (on loan), Dimitar Berbatov, Antonio Valencia, Robin van Persie and Mata.
But when it comes to competing with the biggest clubs in Europe for the talent du jour, that player who has become one of the chief targets for the summer, you have to go back to the summer of 2001 for their last big coup, when they signed Juan Sebastian Veron from Lazio. Even so, that summer Real Madrid signed Zinedine Zidane for £46m.
It was more a case of who United missed out on over the Ferguson years: Patrick Kluivert in his 1990s pomp, Ronaldinho when he went to Barcelona in 2003, Karim Benzema when he joined Real Madrid. The scale of United has a pull on British players and those from overseas based here already (see Van Persie’s “little boy inside”) but they have always struggled to sign the market’s biggest prizes, even when they were the champions of Europe.
The problem? It has to be said that relocating to Manchester is not always an easy sell to the modern footballer from overseas. Preposterous as that may sound, it is the reality northern clubs are faced with. Manchester City have had to pay a premium to overcome that and, having attracted the likes of Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Yaya Touré, have wisely renegotiated contracts to keep them there.
United have always struggled to sign the very best players from Europe, missing out on the likes of Ronaldinho
The upward curve of United’s record transfer fee has been far below that of the world record fee. In 2001, when United broke their 1998 record of £12m for Dwight Yorke by signing Ruud van Nistelrooy (£19m) and Veron (£28.1m), Madrid signed Zidane for just less than those two fees combined. The reported figures are never exact but United have paid only four bigger fees since Veron – for Mata, their biggest so far at £37m, Berbatov, Ferdinand and Ander Herrera.
If Di Maria was to sign for the reputed £50m, the transfer would be placed eighth on the list of all-time fees, alongside the £50m British record Chelsea paid for Fernando Torres and the same amount PSG have committed to David Luiz. The top five fees have all been paid by either Real Madrid or Barcelona and all in the past five years as the arms race has intensified.Juan-Mata.jpg
Of course, it is not all about the size of the fee. The £12.24m United paid in 2003 for a teenage Cristiano Ronaldo was the signing of that decade, perhaps any decade. And no one would wish on United the preposterously lavish pursuit of success, and high turnover of players, Madrid have embarked upon every summer over the past 10 years while leaving major questions over their funding unanswered.
Nevertheless, United’s abstinence in the rising figures would be a lot more laudable had the club not spent the past nine years paying around £680m to service the debt of their owners, the Glazer family. They could not have competed for every player the big two in Spain have signed, but they should have competed for at least one or two.
Once upon a time, Ferguson said that there was no value in the transfer market and, given his success and his longevity, that was accepted in many quarters as the wisest option. The question now for United, however, is not whether they can afford to pay those kind of prices. The question is whether they can afford not to.
Successful clubs have a momentum about them when it comes to signings. They find it easier to attract better players, year after year. Madrid and Barcelona had to wrestle the initiative from the big Italian clubs, just as Chelsea and City had to pay over the odds early on to get the ball rolling.
The £37m paid for Juan Mata in January was a club record
For United, after their years of Glazer frugality under Ferguson, the momentum has come to a halt. Thus, 13 years since they signed Veron, they find themselves once again trying to persuade a reluctant Argentine to come to Old Trafford. It will take more than Di Maria’s acquisition to change the mood around United when it comes to the club’s status in the minds of the world’s elite footballers.
In the meantime, United will have to ensure that the tyre manufacturers, vintners, courier services, savoury snack manufacturers and home office equipment suppliers keep signing up to their commercial partners operation. They will not be able to afford the premium on new players otherwise.
Back to Friday, and Apollo Tyres, the press release tells me, has enlisted the former United striker Andy Cole to launch its new contract, presumably on the basis that no football reporter is going to turn up just to talk treads and inner tubes.
Cole’s £7m signing from Newcastle United almost 20 years ago was one of the three occasions when Ferguson broke the British transfer record. Coming from one of their nearest rivals, it was one of those signings that jolted you with the scale of United’s ambition and power. They could do with a bit of that in the next 13 days, although it will take much longer, and a lot more money, to fix the bigger problems.
Gary Neville has warned Louis van Gaal that he must learn from the expensive mistakes of the previous Manchester United regime and not “panic buy” before the transfer window closes.
The Sky Sports pundit says his former club need to make additions to the squad if they are to compete for major honours again, but urged caution over wasting millions on the wrong type of player.
United have spent £165million on the likes of Juan Mata and Marouane Fellaini in the last five transfer windows – only PSG have spent more across Europe in that period – and Neville feels much of that money was spent unwisely
And he says Van Gaal must adopt a different transfer policy to David Moyes, despite the supporters calling for more money to be spent.
Neville told Monday Night Football: “In the last five transfer windows they have spent some money. In the previous ones to that, maybe there was under-investment because Sir Alex was happy with the squad that he had.
Man Utd signings
Ander Herrera (£29m)
Luke Shaw (£27m)
Juan Mata (£37m)
Marouane Fellaini (£27.5m)
Wilfried Zaha (£15m)
Total: £135.5m
Neville's alternative signings
Gareth Bale (£86m)
Toni Kroos (£24m)
Cesc Fabregas (£30m)
Filipe Luis (£20m)
Total: £160m
“I like to go back and look at things. We were sat here 12 months ago and as a Manchester United fan if you’d said to me the champions of England, who’d just beaten Swansea away from home, were going to spend £140million in the next 12 months and be where they are today I’d say you’re mad.
“Of course they need to spend because they have to; they have to bring more players in. There’s no doubt about that. But it’s critical they bring the right players in.
“They’ve spent £140million in the last 12 months and they’ve got Zaha, Herrera, Shaw, Fellaini and Mata. Last season I’d argue that some of those buys were panic buys, who didn’t fit the philosophy – and they’re paying for it now.
“For that money, or a bit more money, you could have got Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos, Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis. For the same level of money that they’ve spent you could have got those four players into that squad.
“Put those four players in and we’d have been saying United were favourites for the league maybe and maybe the Champions League?
“They’ve got to recruit well and they’ve got a manager now who won’t panic buy, he won’t breech his philosophy and he is strong enough to sit there if he can’t get the players.
“The key is can they get the players that they want? It’s not just spending money for the sake of it.
“Last year they brought in two players who I don’t think suited what they wanted at the time – and that’s a bigger problem.”
Van Gaal admitted after the club’s opening-day defeat to Swansea that he would be looking to bring in new faces.
Highest net spenders in Europe (last 5 transfer windows)
PSG (£165m)
Man Utd (£165m)
Barcelona (£155m)
Chelsea (£137m)
Real Madrid (£126m)
Man City (£126m)
United adopted a 3-5-2 in that game and while Neville isn’t convinced he wants to use that system in the long term, he says the transfer policy will tell us more about the Dutchman’s approach.
“He’s the type of manager who’s confident enough to come to this country and think ‘I’m going to do it a different way’,” he added.
“I think we’ll know in the next few weeks; we’ll know in the recruitment and the type of players that are brought in.
“Danny Blind has been mentioned and Thomas Vermaelen was mentioned a couple of weeks ago. That suggests he’s looking for players that fit the system.
“I believe strongly that outside centre-backs in the back three, who have to defend the wide areas and accept the ball in full-back positions, and wing-backs, who have to be equally as good at one end of the pitch as they are at the other, are specialist positions.
“We’ll see by his recruitment. At the moment I think he’s forced to play this formation because of the players he’s got and the deficiencies he has in his back two, midfield area and the fact he hasn’t got world-class wingers.”
Marcos Rojo's girlfriend Eugenia Lusardo has dropped a major hint on Instagram that the Argentina defender's move to Manchester United is imminent.
Rojo, 24, has been one of Louis van Gaal's key targets this summer and he earlier described it as a 'dream' to play for United.
And his model girlfriend Lusardo posted a picture on Instagram on Tuesday of the pair, accompanied by the caption: 'Congratulations on this new stage of your life. We love you greatly and we are always with you. You deserve this and much more.'
Cheers: Rojo's girlfriend Eugenia Lusardo congratulated her man in a post on Instagram on Tuesday
Rojo may well be the most tattooed player ever to wear the shirt of the red devils with a whole host of inked designs on his body.
A couple of them are in English, the most visible being 'Pride' on his right leg and 'Glory' on his left leg. 'For My Family' is also above his chest.
Another is dedicated to former club Estudiantes de la Plata, where he won the Copa Libertadores trophy in 2009.
In an interview with the radio station Continental in his homeland, quoted in several national newspapers, Rojo said: 'It's a dream to play at Manchester United and I am very proud of having the chance of working with [Louis] van Gaal.
'I spoke with Juan Sebastian Veron about Manchester United when we were at Estudiantes. I have always liked English football, and I should adapt to this new playing style easily.'
United's move for Rojo has been complicated by a row between Sporting Lisbon and his a third-party ownership group, while the 24-year-old upset his employers by initially refusing to train in a bid to push through the deal, although he later apologised and returned to work.
'There was a misunderstanding, I never wanted to do something wrong at Sporting as I have always been very thankful to that team that gave me many chances for playing in Europe,' Rojo said.
'If I made a mistake, I have already apologised because I didn't want to hurt the feelings of anyone at the club.'
