At least seven Manchester United players could be out the door this summer, and if you include Romelu Lukaku, potentially eight. Lukaku was the rock solid first choice striker under Jose Mourinho, but that changed once Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took the wheel.
Now Marcus Rashford is the main man, and having to play a subservient role as the big Belgian potentially wanting out. Big Rom has openly talked about wanting a move to Italy, specifically Juventus, but this time, it’s his agent Federico Pastorello who is talking up the idea of the United centre-forward moving on.
“At the moment he is very focused on finishing the season,” Pastorello said in an interview with Sky Sports.
“The competition for third and fourth place in England is very tight so let’s see what will happen in the future at the end the season. It’s his second season here and he will still have three years on his contract until the end.
“Let’s see. He’s someone who loves to know a different culture, a different football.”
“He sees a way to have a career playing in different countries because he would like to win some trophies and prove himself and say to his children ‘I won there and I won there and I won there’ and ‘I was a very good player in all the top championships’ so let’s see, the future is really very open but, at the moment, we don’t discuss about that because really the season is in a big moment.”
The talk about a “different culture,” “different football” and “different countries” definitely seems to fit the Lukaku wants to move abroad narrative. Only time will tell if this is just agent talk, or a prelude to an actual transfer.
If Lukaku does leaves, then one would think Old Trafford would have to buy an attacker this summer, and if so you already know who the number one target is- the much discussed winger at Borussia Dortmund, Jadon Sancho.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.