Zlatan Ibrahimovic is here to help one of his former employers out. Now that Manchester United is jettisoning the highest salaried player in club history, Alexis Sanchez, their shallow and youthful group of forwards will now become thinner and younger.
In loaning the Chilean to Inter Milan, United have sent a couple messages. First, they must believe Anthony Martial’s injury to not be too serious. Secondly, they expect 17-year-old Mason Greenwood to contribute significantly this season.
Ibrahimovic, who led the team in scoring by a very healthy margin in 2016-17, has joked about returning to Old Trafford.
“I could play easy in the Premier League,” Ibra said, so if United need me, I’m here, but Galaxy has me, so I’m sorry.”
The 37-year-old striker, who has also played for Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan, Barcelona and Juventus, then made sure we realized he is joking. He currently has 22 goals and three assists in 22 games this season with the L.A. Galaxy.
“Nah, I did my job in Europe. I enjoyed it, I have 33 trophies that I brought with me here and hopefully I can get something here. And then we will see where that adventure finishes,” the Swede added.
Zlatan also said that he keeps up with the last team he played for before moving to Major League Soccer, and he gave his match commentary on the Red Devils losing to Crystal Palace for the first time in the Premier League era.
“I look, I look, I look. I saw the last game and I think they were unlucky. If they score the penalty, it’s a different game but a game in England is not finished until it’s finished,” he continued.
“Anything can happen, especially in the last minutes where everything is in the heat of the moment.”
United didn’t replace Romelu Lukaku after selling him to Inter Milan, and their only option for replacing Sanchez, once the loan to Inter is complete, would be via the free agent market. It doesn’t currently look like anything is going to happen there.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.