Man Utd told to pay £130m for Fellaini replacement

Manchester United will be in the transfer market for a central midfielder or two over the summer.

We currently have six on the book but Michael Carrick is retiring at the end of the season and Marouane Fellaini is widely-expected to let his contract run down.

With Jose Mourinho switching to a 4-3-3 since signing Alexis Sanchez in January, we’ll certainly be bringing in reinforcements during the summer transfer window.

One central midfielder we have been linked to throughout the current campaign is Lazio’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.

Italian outlet SportMediaset have even named us as one of five clubs keen on signing the Serbian international – Real Madrid, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City being the others.

The report also goes on to say that the club have received approaches around the €70 million mark (£60m), but that the president of Lazio, Claudio Lotito, has sent back the proposals and told all prospect suitors that they must bid a staggering €150 million (£130m) or there is no deal.

That’s a huge sum for the 23-year-old given that Lazio aren’t even a Champions League side.  However, Milinkovic-Savic is one of the highest-rated central midfielders in world football right now.  He is excellent defensively and has also popped up with a very impressive nine goals in 28 Serie A appearances for the Rome club this season.

Should Lotito’s claims be true then executive vice-chairman of Manchester United, Ed Woodward, has a lot of thinking to do over the next few weeks or months.

With Fellaini departing, Scott McTominay still relatively inexperienced and Ander Herrera seemingly not in Jose Mourinho’s long-term plans, signing a top central midfielder will certainly be one of the boss’ priorities this summer, to partner Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic in the midfield three.

Other names that we have been strongly linked with this year include Real Madrid’s Toni Kroos, Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Weigl and Nice’s Jean Seri.