Lukaku A Good Replacement for Zlatan

Stoke City manager and former Manchester United player, Mark Hughes, has said that Romelu Lukaku will be a ‘great replacement’ for outgoing player, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

It was reported yesterday that United have agreed to a massive £75 million transfer fee for the Everton striker.

While neither United nor Lukaku himself has officially announced the transfer, the deal is close to being finalised.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Hughes said that the star striker will be a great asset to United.

“In fairness to the boy, for a number of years, he has been scoring regular goals at the top level of British football…Given that Manchester United have lost Zlatan, they clearly had to address that and they’ve gone for Lukaku,” Hughes said.

Hughes also commented on Lukaku’s repeated refusal to extend his contract with Everton. The French international’s hesitation to extend his contract was due to his doubts around Everton’s ambition to win trophies.

“Everton are a good club – I’ve played at both clubs. Everton are very much a family club, United – clearly since I left – it’s gone on to become even bigger on the world stage and it’s a huge entity now…Maybe he’ll find a little bit of a difference in that but his day-to-day work will be similar and I’m sure he’ll be a great success there [at United],” Hughes said.

According to Jim White, the only reason for delay on an announcement is a few legal points that still require discussion.