Jose Mourinho believes £60m-rated Antoine Grizemann would turn Manchester United into champions… but it would spell the end for Wayne Rooney
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JOSE MOURINHO believes Antoine Griezmann will be the magic ingredient to turn Manchester United back into champions.
France ace Griezmann is Mourinho’s first choice to provide the stardust and goals he sees as key to restoring United to the top of English and European football.
But if Mourinho does get his man this summer — and it will take £60million-plus to prise him away from Atletico Madrid — the writing will be on the Old Trafford wall for Wayne Rooney.
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It is not difficult to see why Griezmann, 25, is the apple of Mourinho’s eye.
This year alone he has scored 25 goals and has nine assists from 52 games for Atletico. He did so playing as a second striker.
He won the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament at Euro 2016, scoring six goals in seven games for France, who lost in the final to Portugal.
Griezmann was also third behind winner Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in last week’s Ballon d’Or. Rooney, for so long English football’s golden boy, did not receive a single vote.
Rooney is becoming yesterday’s man.
He is likely to be managed out of the club over the next six months to make way for a new No 10.
Rooney has been a declining influence for some time and this season has provided more proof than ever.
His start against West Brom last weekend was just his eighth in the Premier League this term, scoring once.
Mourinho has instead "saved"; him for Europa League games in which he has made six appearances, scoring twice.
But even before he arrived at Old Trafford, Mourinho was sceptical about the 31-year-old England captain.
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It has been four years since Rooney last scored more than 20 goals in a season — considered the benchmark for a top striker.
This season, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has assumed the mantle of centre-forward for United, leaving his manager grateful for goals which have kept the team in touch with the top four.
The Swede is four years older than Rooney, though you would never know it. Just last month there was major controversy over the United skipper’s rest and recuperation regime when he was pictured drinking at the England team hotel in the early hours of the morning after the win against Scotland.
Mourinho publicly defended Rooney but was privately angry to be dragged into a row which did not happen on his watch.
Contrast that to Griezmann, who has started every game for Atletico this season. He is viewed as the fifth vertebrae in the spine of Mourinho’s new United.
David De Gea, Paul Pogba and Ibrahimovic will be joined by a new commanding centre-back in the January window and then Griezmann next summer. There is a will throughout United that Rooney should be allowed to pass Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 249 goals — he is one short.
His current deal expires in 2019 and includes a clause which forbids him from signing for another Premier League club.
United are understood to be willing to waive that if they receive a suitable bid, though he is likely to be inundated with offers from China and the MLS.
Mourinho’s handling of Rooney has been more sympathetic, partly because he knows the striker’s time at United is coming to a natural end anyway.
The arrival of Griezmann would seal the deal.