Jose Mourinho wants to make Internazionale centre-back Milan Skriniar a Manchester United player in January, according to reports.
The boss was left disappointed over the summer when executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward failed to land any of our defensive targets over the summer. Toby Alderweireld, Harry Maguire and Jermone Boateng had all been strongly linked, among others.
We have been leaking goals this season – keeping just one clean sheet of our first 12 Premier League matches, conceding 21 goals in the process. Eric Bailly appears to have fallen out with Jose as Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof has become our centre-back partnership in recent weeks.
A report in the Express is now claiming that Jose Mourinho has identified Milan Skriniar as our priority transfer target when the winter transfer window opens in January.
The 23-year-old has turned into one of the best centre-backs in Serie A since his move to the San Siro in 2017 and he’s been a virtual ever-present in Luciano Spalletti’s starting XI this season as Inter look to make a title challenge or at least qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Skriniar is a regular for the Slovakian national team and I believe he would be an excellent signing should we be able to pull it off.
However, despite Jose’s willingness to bring in another centre-back to Old Trafford, the report says that United officials are not actively looking to strengthen our defence during the next transfer window.
Should this report be accurate then it would be another slap in the face of the boss as club officials also failed to back him over the summer. This would also lead to further speculation surround his future at Manchester United, which has come into question a few times this season already.
