Manchester United to sign Lukaku, give up on Morata — reports

Typical, isn’t it? You take your eye off the transfer market for five minutes and then, when you return, it’s all gone upside down. So according to this morning’s scuttlebutt, Manchester United are going to beat Chelsea to the signing of Romelu Lukaku.

The sources are various and have been growing increasingly sure of themselves. The Mail, for example, were quite circumspect yesterday evening, going with:

Manchester United are ready to hijack Romelu Lukaku's £100million move to Chelsea. In a sensational development, Sportsmail understands Jose Mourinho is closing in on the biggest move of the summer and a world-record deal, eclipsing Paul Pogba's £89m return to Old Trafford last year.

Everton striker Lukaku, who scored 26 goals last season, was expected to go back to Stamford Bridge but relations between the two clubs have soured since Chelsea's failed move to sign John Stones in 2015.

But by this morning, things were getting more conclusive. The Manchester Evening News’ Stuart Mathieson has just tweeted this:

Which is a neck being stuck out a long, long way. Others have suggested that United might sign both strikers, which sounds both exciting and implausible to tBB.

There’s always the possibility that this is some kind of ruse on the part of either Everton, United, or both; a nudge to both Real Madrid and Chelsea that they have other options. But if United have said to Madrid, nah, thanks, then going back to say actually might be a little awkward.

Then there’s the possibility of Wayne Rooney going the other way. Does that make this more likely? We don’t know. We really don’t.