Europa League champions Manchester United are set to hijack Inter Milan’s Ivan Perisic from under the noses of Premier League champions Chelsea.
Foottheball sources reveal Manchester United will splurge £40million to secure the services of Croatian forward.
Sources also reveal that Perisic has now given a nod to a £100,000-a-week deal and will become the first summer signing of Manchester United, who are desperate to make more big signings before the start of the new season.
Jose Mourinho had flown to Zagreb in March to monitor the deal in person, according to Foottheball sources.
And now the Portuguese boss has made up his mind to go forward with the transfer after Man Utd won the Europa League to seal a place in the Champions League group stages.
Chelsea and Ligue 1 giants PSG were also interested in roping in the services of Perisic and the French giants were eager to do a swap deal involving former United player Angel Di Maria.
However, Perisic wanted a move to Man Utd with his previous agent promising him to negotiate the wages at the Theatre of Dreams.
Perisic, who can play as a second striker, winger or an attacking midfielder was previously managed by Tonci Martic.
But now he has signed with Lian Sports – run by super-agent Pini Zahavi and his Balkans expert Fali Ramadani.
Man Utd boss Mourinho had flown to Zagreb to monitor Perisic’s performance for Croatia and also to meet with his pal Predrag Mijatovic.
The Portuguese manager shares a good bond with Mijatovic, the former Real Madrid player and sporting director.
Earlier, the duo have successfully worked on a number of transfers – roping in players from the Balkans, which also includes the signing of Luka Modric for Real Madrid and bringing back Nemanja Matic at Chelsea.
And now it looks like Mourinho has taken help of Mijatovic to finalise the Perisic deal.
Inter director Piero Ausilio has also confirmed that Ivan Perisic is a transfer target for Manchester United.
Ausilio said: “[United] haven’t made us an official offer for Perisic but their interest is there. We want to improve Inter and this is why we do not have any sellable or un-sellable players as of now.”
“We know that we already have many important players within our roster like Perisic and before we decide to sell him, we have to think about what’s best for Inter.”
“For me we have an as good squad or maybe even a better squad than most of the teams who finished ahead of us. We don’t need all that much, we will certainly make some moves but we will first have to see what our new coach will want.”
