What’s left for Manchester United this season? Giving their “all” in a match against Chelsea, which matter for those chasing the top four finish, and that’s it. The rest is garbage time games and speculation about transfer rumors, from the absurd and unrealistic like Cristiano Ronaldo, to the Robert Lewandowski saga, which seems to take a different twist each and every day.
Lewandowski was an excellent striker before he scored four goals against Real Madrid, but people don’t pay attention to players outside a certain group of clubs unless they do something very special. United were after Lewandowski last season, but Dortmund weren’t in the business of selling anyone but Shinji Kagawa, and so the Polish striker stayed another season, so far adding 35 goals in all competitions (including 10 in the UCL) to his impressive resume.
Now, all of a sudden, Manchester United aren’t alone in the race, while Dortmund, who have Lewandowski until 2014, are suddenly thinking of trying to keep him a little bit longer instead of cashing in on him, despite the fact that he has insisted he won’t sign a new contract with the club. At the risk of facing a mass exodus after exposing all their cards, which already began with Mario Gotze signing with Bayern Munich, suddenly releasing Lewandowski doesn’t sound like such a good idea.
At the moment, there seems to be a quadruple front regarding the talented forward, who’ll be turning 25 in August. His agent, Malik Barthel, is insisting that while the Premier League (and it’s money) interests Lewandowski, he doesn’t think it’ll happen this summer. On the other hand, agents aren’t that trustworthy as interview subjects.
There’s the Manchester United front, with Alex Ferguson hinting at getting the player this summer. United got one of the men they were after last season, signing Robin van Persie over Manchester City and Juventus, but lost out to Paris Saint-Germain for Lucas Moura.
There’s the Bayern Munich front, always an angle in any premier Bundesliga player. After getting Gotze for €37 million, it seems that they would like to partner familiar faces together in their attack, but the club and its chiefs are denying any advancement in that area as well.
And finally, there’s the Dortmund front. According to his current club, especially after Gotze has already been sold, they prefer to keep Lewandowski and let him run out his contract, while hoping he does change his mind in the coming 12 months. Dortmund have made quite an impressive journey since the arrival of Jurgen Klopp, and they don’t want to see it come undone in one summer after one impressive Champions League campaign.