Manchester United are almost certainly going to sign a striker this summer after the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic. A whole host of names are linked, including Alvaro Morata, Andrea Belotti and of course Romelu Lukaku. Whilst it might seem that Lukaku has his mind set on returning to Chelsea, there is a slight chance that the forward could still make a move to Old Trafford and link up with Jose Mourinho, the manager who decided to sell the player to Everton from Chelsea in the first place.

According to ESPN pundit Paul Marriner, Everton have indeed received a bid for the Belgian striker from Manchester United, apparently a substantial bid. This won’t come as a surprise to many, but with Lukaku’s future still unsolved, and with him posting a cryptic video on Instagram which shows the Belgian dancing with a friend wearing a Manchester United shirt – as well as being on holiday with Paul Pogba in USA, who knows what might happen.

Marriner, who has been based in the States as a pundit and coach for nearly 30 years, claimed he was informed of United’s attempt to sign Lukaku by Everton’s director of football.

“My mate is now the sporting director at Everton,” Marriner said on ESPN. “I had a good chat with him and they’re going to spend a lot of money this summer.”

“They feel as if it’s time they broke into that top four, it’s a big ask but that’s what Ronald Koeman and the staff want to do.”

“They’ve had bids for Lukaku, mainly from Manchester United and Chelsea. It’s a lot of money, I personally wouldn’t be paying that sort of money. They think they can hold out for it but they’ve already added to the squad.”

“It’s going to be very, very interesting to see if they improve and I think they will improve.”

United will be disappointed to have missed out on Griezmann this summer, but with names like Lukaku’s mentioned as potential transfers, it won’t take long for fans to forget the woe of missing out on their no.1 target.