Mesut Ozil was one of the stars of the World Cup and I have therefore been very surprised to read all week that we are favourites to sign him. The bookies have suspended bets on a United deal whilst all sorts of media outlets claimed he had been seen at Manchester airport. But since when have United been able to land one of the world’s most coveted stars? Not since the Glazers and that’s for sure.
However, with Ozil having just one year remaining on his contract, Werder Bremen may be more keen to sell and as yet, Real Madrid haven’t shown any interest.
The attacking midfielder has today revealed that he is interested in a move to the Premiership, with a ‘come and get me’ plea directed to us and Chelsea, claiming it would be a dream to come and play for us.
“There are four or five clubs in Europe that you would have to say as a player would be a dream to play for,” Ozil said. “Manchester United and Chelsea are very much two of them. When you are looking at moving clubs it’s impossible not to pay attention to the Premier League and even more impossible not to pay attention to Manchester United and Chelsea. I am a winner and, when I am looking for a new club, I simply look at where I can be the most successful and where I can win the most trophies. If you look at the recent history of Manchester United and Chelsea then it’s clear that a player can be very successful there. Of course clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona are of huge interest and the Premier League’s top two clubs are of serious interest to me when the time comes. I am under contract with Werder for another year and it is impossible for me to say if a deal will be done this summer. They may decide that they want to keep me for another season or they may decide to sell me this summer so they can get some money for me. That is up to the club.”
Chelsea haven’t been splashing the cash as much recently and I’m sure United could offer a competitive salary. Some sources have claimed he would cost as little as £12m and I imagine Chelsea wouldn’t want to drive the price much higher than that.
I won’t get my hopes up but it appears as though there could be some truth in the rumour.
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