Correre dello Sport caused a fuss on Sunday when they claimed Zlatan Ibrahimovic was encouraging Manchester United to sign Marco Verratti from PSG.
Having just left PSG, Ibrahimovic knows Verratti well, but the Italian footballer will be no alien to Jose Mourinho, it’s obvious he’d be a good signing for any club.
Corriere dello Sport said Manchester United would be willing to pay €100m for Verratti and were very determined.
Although the Italian newspaper didn’t credit anyone, it wasn’t their story… or at least it wasn’t their story originally.
Verratti to Manchester United appears to have started with Europe 1 in France, who said on June 11th that the English club would be willing to pay €100m to secure the player.
The radio report was then picked up by several newspapers, including France’s Journal du Dimanche
Europe 1’s original report contained all the same claims about Ibrahimovic and the big amount Manchester United would pay, but it’s not created huge waves in France.
It would be considered unlikely for PSG to lose Verratti, one of their very best players, in the same summer Ibrahimovic leaves, unless someone like Paul Pogba was in the pipeline.
One interesting point of the claims is that Mourinho has apparently been texting Verratti repeatedly about a move, something which has been claimed previously in relation to the manager and other players.
That may well now be a routine add-in for Mourinho transfer rumours.
