Kevin Strootman leads the way in any and all Man United transfer rumors posts these days. It’s pretty clear that he’s at the top of the must buy list for Louis van Gaal in January. Strootman’s fitness is the reason that he wasn’t bought in this past summer transfer window. And it appears the price to acquire him might include £37.5 million man Juan Mata.
Here’s the gist of a story in the Daily Mirror today: “Manchester United’s pursuit of Kevin Strootman could see Juan Mata offered to Roma in an exchange.”
The Daily People had a narrative that was quite similar just four days ago:
“Manchester United will offer Juan Mata as bait in their bid to land Roma midfielder Kevin Strootman in January.”
A story in the Daily Express today: “Juventus have cooled their interest in Manchester United’s Juan Mata,” also makes this specific deal more likely to happen.
Stootman’s injury kept him from playing for Van Gaal’s Dutch national team in the World Cup this past summer. Again had he been healthy, Strootman would likely already be in Old Trafford. As for Mata, he’s a fine player but he just doesn’t fit in LVG’s system. He’s not as good as his price tag, which broke a club transfer record at the time. (Angel Di Maria broke the club transfer fee record by a cool £22.2 million.)
Juan Mata is quality; but Kevin Strootman is probably a better fit.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partners with Fox Sports and Yahoo. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN2.