Friday was a little crazy in the Manchester United rumour mill. It kicked off with Portuguese claims of Victor Lindelof having his Old Trafford move all agreed and a medical being pencilled in for mid to late next week, and ended with Alvaro Morata said to be flying to Manchester United on Monday.
The latter claims came from Spanish radio, and, if we’re honest, Spanish radio exaggerate more often than not. Onda Cero reported a fee agreed of €73m, and threw the Monday claim in.
Monday travel is a reasonable assumption, if indeed there’s an agreed deal, because Spain play away to Macedonia on Sunday, so Morata could then get his medical and the signing out of the way before going on holiday.
Nobody wants their two weeks on a yacht interrupted by a trip to Carrington which could have been done earlier.
The Spanish media generally haven’t been hugely pushing the Morata to Manchester United. Yes, they’ve covered it, but there’s been no bragging over price or huge panicking over Real Madrid making a mistake.
Take Marca on Saturday, their front page is dominated by an interview with Lucas Vazquez, which isn’t the most exciting of splashes. At the top, it manages to squeeze in ‘Morata asks to leave, and Madrid asks €90m’.
Marca reiterate, as they reported yesterday, that Morata’s agent Juanma Lopez met Real Madrid on Friday morning and informed the club a transfer is desired because of a lack of minutes.
The Spanish newspaper say Morata’s fate ‘seems to be’ with Jose Mourinho, and that Madrid ‘seeks an amount close to €90m’ for the transfer.
If that happens, Real Madrid will then move for Kylian Mbappe, a transfer the club have been considering for this summer or next.
Over at AS, they do have the Spanish international on the front page, with the headline ‘Morata, destino Manchester’.
Inside, AS make it very clear they’ve got their information from The Telegraph and Onda Cero. There’s nothing new here, and AS’s excitement is more directed towards what Madrid can do with all that lovely money.
The Spanish press seem to be behind on this, which, in our experience, is a little odd. With every big Real Madrid departure of recent years it’s been the Spanish press leading the way.
They’re not even trying to pass other’s claims off as their own, admittedly not as big a problem in Spain as elsewhere. Given that, perhaps Monday is optimistic, especially with claims in Spain that Madrid want more than what has been reported as an agreed fee.
Developments over the weekend could change everything, and weekends seem to get more than their fair share of transfer business done.
Taking the optimistic line, surely there has to be a push from Manchester United and Morata himself to get it all sorted before the player’s holidays. Therefore, whilst Onda Cero’s claims may be exaggerated, they could end up also being true, Monday will give that answer.
