Modric is a must buy for Man Utd in the summer!

The jury was out on a little Croatian when he first arrived in England. He is often seen as too small and simply too lightweight to compete in the heart of a midfield in the most physical league in the world, the English Premiership. I must admit, I was one of the jury still unsure whether this highly technical genius had enough physical attributes to sustain a long and successful career in England. I had seen him for the Croatian national team flourish in a free role and thought although he is skilful, could he hack it in the Premiership? A few years on and my opinion has not only changed completely, I now think Luca Modric is a must buy for Manchester United this summer.

Here is the scenario, Manchester Utd have had a good season this year but nothing more. The main objective was to reach the Champions league final again and this time erase the painful memories instilled on them by Barcelona at the peak of their powers. The Champions League games with Bayern Munich and Premiership game with Chelsea showed that even though the old guard such as Scholes and Giggs are still very good squad players and do a job when called upon, it is not reasonable to rely heavily on two middle-aged thirty- year olds to compete with younger, quicker players on the elite stage, especially for the next few seasons. This is where my quest for Modric at United comes in.

Wayne Rooney is in the form of his life and acclimatised himself brilliantly to playing upfront as a lone striker. This season Sir Alex Ferguson has favoured this formation as he knows it gets the best out his best player in Rooney, and often deploys Giggs or Scholes within the three-man central midfield. Lately this 4-3-3 formation or 4-5-1 (when playing away) has been transformed into more of a 4-2-3-1 with an attacking midfielder being used just playing off Rooney. Luca Modric plays this role for Croatia with aplomb and flourishes in a withdrawn role from the strikers, being the puppet master for attacks and a tollbooth for offensive strategies conjured up by his teams. He is a classy dribbler and has deceptive speed with bags of creativity and flair. His movement is dazzling at times and would be on full show in this role at United. He is constantly on the move in this role which is a nightmare for opposing defensive midfielders and defenders to pick up, dropping off and turning up in clever positions. His passing is never really talked about but his passing range is very good and crisp. He has also showed this year more than ever that he can play in the heat of the battle in an orthodox center midfield role and come out better and stronger and help Spurs to important points along the way. His versatility could also be vital for a team like United that play a lot of games per year and rely heavily on not just assured first teamers, but fringe and squad players. He can play on the wing as well as this gives United something more cultured and different on the flanks from the strong, fast usually hustle and bustle from messers Valencia and Nani.

Luca Modric is a quality footballer who deserves his place amongst the elite in the world for the position he takes up on a football pitch and the style of player he is. Simply he would be garnering a lot more attention if he played for a bigger team than Tottenham. That is not putting down Spurs in the slightest, but until they at least take up a place in the Champions League, will constantly be regarded as the ‘Nearly men’ of English football. If Modric played for Barcelona, people would be waxing lyrical about a footballer, simply divine in how he carries himself on a pitch and portrays a vision of how the beautiful game should be played. He would also be cheap in relation to bidding for players of similar abilty at the elite clubs. These clubs command astronomical prices for players who cannot repay massive fees by turning out unbelievably frequent top-notch performances and represent bad value for money and Modric would make sense for United. He is also accustomed to the English game and type of play and would fit into United almost straight away.

To summarise Luca Modric is exactly the type of player needed at United to bring them back to the top of the world’s elite and could be a new number 7 United have been craving since Cristiano Ronaldo left.