Man Utd transfer news: Mourinho in the market for £176m Mauro Icardi transfer

Mauro Icardi’s agent has put a price on the Argentine striker’s head and it’s a figure that’s likely to make his suitors blush – like a West Ham goalkeeper who’s just seen Wayne Rooney score from the halfway line.

According to Metro, the Inter Milan captain is worth a cool £176m, or at least that’s what Wanda Nara has told the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport.

Nara, who’s also Icardi’s wife, clearly has an acute sense of the striker’s worth after watching him score 15 goals in 14 games this season for the Serie A side.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

She may also be aware that Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal have all been linked with the 24-year-old in recent months, hence the exorbitant asking price for the Argentine who has won only a handful of international caps.

“Mauro is an important player and these are top clubs who have been following him for some time,” says Nara. “It’s right that such an attacker, one of the most important number nines in the world, has big clubs who care about him and consider him for what he is worth.”

Metro says that Icardi has a £98m release clause in his current deal, but Nara insists that her husband is worth “at least €200m (£176m)”. Asked if she’d received any offers for the Inter ace, she said: “I prefer not to tell you who is calling me. It is I who talk about these things while Mauro thinks of Inter.”

In time-honoured tradition, Nara says that her client is “happy” with his current situation but that didn’t prevent her from boasting: “I do not deny that there are many teams interested in him – much more than are being said.”

Icardi’s price tag could be the reason Jose Mourinho has, according to The Sun, told his scouts to “find me a magician”. Presumably the United boss isn’t after someone who can produce a string of brightly-coloured handkerchiefs from their sleeve, but a playmaker who can conjure up more goals for his side.

The Sun says that Mourinho is “determined not to play second fiddle to great rival Pep Guardiola at the Etihad” and as a result intends to splash the cash in January. The paper gives no names of possible targets but says the United board will loosen the purse strings if a player can be found “at the right price”.