Our resident Manchester United fans here in the Football Transfer Tavern, are growing absolutely sick and tired of the amount of false dawns their club have failed to build upon so far this season.
After achieving a fantastic smash and grab 0-1 win at Liverpool last week, this positive result was immediately followed up by a quite awful 0-1 home to defeat to Southampton on Saturday.
Everybody loses games, we all accept that but the manner of the Red Devils’ latest defeat is particularly worrying with there being no real indicator nowadays as to exactly what United side will turn up.
Louis van Gaal didn’t have any answers in his post match comments either with the experienced Dutchman knowing that what his side are producing at the moment simply isn’t good enough.
Naturally, LVG’s position as manager has come under intense scrutiny again with talkSPORT today claiming that Jose Mourinho is still waiting to succeed the under-fire manager as boss for the remainder of the season and beyond.
Despite his Chelsea connections, it appears that more and more United fans are willing to take Jose on now given the lack of direction the club seem to be heading in under van Gaal.
With this in mind, we’ve today devised a list of five players who could end up following Mourinho to Old Trafford if he is appointed as van Gaal’s successor.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five players who could follow Jose Mourinho to Manchester United.
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Raphael Varane
Manchester United are in desperate need of another top quality solution at centre back to compete with both Chris Smalling and Daley Blind. Simple.
If Mourinho were to be appointed as new Manchester United manager, surely the former Chelsea boss would go after Raphael Varane in the transfer market having trailed him closely as Blues boss?
Having been rotated with Sergio Ramos and Pepe for many a year now at the Bernabeu, Varane could eventually be deemed surplus to requirements if Manchester United pursue this deal aggressively enough and when you consider Mourinho ultimately gave Varane his big break, there could be greater leverage.
Varane has heaped praise on Mourinho in the past and if he doesn’t become an instant pick week in, week out under Zinedine Zidane, then perhaps United may have a better chance of landing him with Mourinho on board.
Wesley Sneijder
When it comes to who Jose Mourinho’s favourite players are, you cannot look beyond Wesley Sneijder with the Dutchman having won the treble under the Portuguese at Inter Milan in 2010.
We read in The Sun that if Mourinho were to be appointed as new United manager, he would go after the current Galatasaray man who himself, has been a long-term target of the Red Devils.
Despite Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin arriving in the summer to limited effect, surely the likes of Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini won’t be around at Old Trafford long-term either.
Add into the fact that United fans haven’t seen the best of Ander Herrera for long enough – either through his own inconsistencies or Louis van Gaal’s tactics – and you can see how Mourinho might want to make room for an additional experienced midfielder he trusts.
John Stones
Chelsea were denied his signature on more than one occasion last summer and with the move having not worked out then, it might not ever do for the Blues.
Stones remained at Everton to continue his development as the story goes but this summer will present yet another opportunity for the England international to assess where his long-term future lies.
Manchester United have also been linked with Stones but given the fact that he was primarily a Mourinho target for the Blues, surely he’d still be on the Portuguese’s’ radar at Old Trafford?
Undoubtedly one of the outstanding young English talents coming through alongside Dele Alli, Everton are better than most in keeping hold of their top players for longer than usual.
However, we feel Stones will make that move to an elite side and Manchester United could have the edge having eventually wagered deals for Wayne Rooney in the past and Marouane Fellaini more recently.
Seamus Coleman
Back in mid-December, we read clearly premature reports in Metro that Chelsea were to sign Everton’s Seamus Coleman in the January transfer window but it appears that was quite clearly rubbish.
Republic of Ireland international Coleman has been a long-term target for the Red Devils however and if there was even a hint of truth in the fact that Mourinho was chasing the Toffees star in his late Blues tenure, perhaps a deal could be resurrected alongside his potential appointment at Manchester United?
Matteo Darmian hasn’t convinced everybody and with only the stop gap Antonio Valencia as the other choice at right back when fit, you could see Mourinho wanting to improve on those two players at full back.
Antoine Griezmann
Aside from Pedro, Chelsea didn’t move to sign any true marquee name in the summer transfer window and what Blues fans craved was for their club to go onto that next level after romping home to the Premier League title by signing either a Paul Pogba or this man Antoine Griezmann.
Quite simply one of the stars of La Liga with Atletico Madrid, the consensus in the tavern is that despite being happy at Atletico right now, there will come a time when the French international wants to test himself at even more of an elite club.
With the likes of Sergio Aguero, Fernando Torres and Diego Costa having gone on to bigger things after their spell at the Vicente Calderon, we feel that if anybody pursues a deal for Griezmann aggressively enough, the Spanish club could eventually give in for a huge fee of course.
United will need to ensure they finish in the Champions League qualification places this season to give themselves the best chance of landing a star such as Griezmann in the summer and perhaps Jose Mourinho is the man to do that and not Louis van Gaal.
