Man Utd Uncovered: Mourinho wants to take spending past £200m with Dier and Perisic deals

Posted Thursday, July 13, 2017 by Express.co.uk

Man Utd Uncovered: Mourinho wants to take spending past £200m with Dier and Perisic deals
Manchester United want to sign Eric Dier and Ivan Perisic (right)

MANCHESTER UNITED may want Eric Dier but they know it will not be easy to prise him out of Tottenham.

Manchester United have been offered encouragement by Dier himself – a boyhood Red Devils fan – who is understood to be open to a move to Old Trafford especially as he could double the £70,000-a-week wages he earns at Tottenham.

But United are bracing themselves for a long, protracted battle and possibly abortive bid to land the England midfielder.

Spurs are adamant they do not want to sell one of the key players in a young, vibrant team that has mounted a strong challenge for the Premier League title in the last two seasons.

United have plenty of experience of why Spurs chairman Daniel Levy is regarded as such a notoriously tough negotiator from when they bought Michael Carrick in 2006 and Dimitar Berbatov two years later.

On top of that, Spurs are not the selling the club they were back then and will not want to start breaking up Mauricio Pochettino’s richly talented squad ahead of the move into their new stadium in a year’s time.

Manchester City’s pursuit of Spurs right back Kyle Walker will certainly not help United's efforts to land Dier.

It is likely that Dier – who is contracted until 2021 - will have to formally ask for a move while United will have to table a £60m offer to tempt Levy to budge. That is around £20m more than United’s valuation for a player they see as the long-term replacement for Carrick.

As they did with their dual pursuit of Alvaro Morata and Romelu Lukaku, Jose Mourinho has identified both Dier and Nemanja Matic as his top targets to fill the midfield anchor role.

In case a deal for Dier fails to materialise, Mourinho has retained his interest in Matic but accepts Chelsea will be reluctant to strengthen their former manager’s squad by selling the Serbian after being gazumped by United for the £75m signing of Lukaku.

United sources have dismissed reported interest in Chelsea-target Tiemoue Bakayoko as a “red herring”.

In fact, they still hope that if Bakayoko finally completes his move from Monaco to Stamford Bridge, it will improve the prospect of Matic being allowed to move to Old Trafford, especially as the player will not be content at the prospect of no longer being one of Antonio Conte’s regular starters.

While a deal for either Dier or Matic will no doubt prove to be a tortuous saga, United are hoping to wrap up a move for Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic more quickly.

They are keen to push through a deal for the Croatian before Inter fly out on their pre-season tour to China next week.

Again the asking price is the stumbling block. Inter want around £49m which is around £20m more than United are understood to have offered.

Inter are unhappy that United tried to exploit their need to meet Financial Fair Play requirements by offering a low price.

Again it is likely to take Perisic to tell Inter he wants to leave. He is understood to want to work under Mourinho in the Premier League but has so far kept his own counsel.

New manager Luciano Spalletti, however, insists he will not keep players who are not committed to the Inter cause.

United have already spent over £100m on Lukaku and Swedish defender Victor Lindelof. It looks like they will have to take that figure over the £200m mark to land their next two targets.