Following his pre-match comments ahead of last weekend's match with Tottenham Hotspur, Sir Alex Ferguson stated his admiration for a player that has been on his watch list for quite sometime, and with some hope, Luka Modric will be heading to Old Trafford in the summer.
With United out of UEFA Champions League, there is not much to write about, so the speculation has been thick about Sir Alex and his future at Old Trafford and potential transfer targets.
Modric moved to Spurs in the summer of 2008 for £16.5 million, and now the papers are valuing him at £25 million, however, if their manager, Harry Redknapp, has anything to say about it, he will consider him priceless and would deny any move for his young playmaker.
One good thing for United in regard to the value of Modric is that it will sky rocket during the summer because his country, Croatia, failed to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Modric has flown under the radar since coming to England because of a series of long-term injuries, so if he had a stage like the World Cup, he would shine and catch the attention of all the onlookers.
Compared
Sir Alex compared the little Croatian to some of the best "smaller" players in the history of the Barclays Premier League, which included Chelsea's cult hero, Gianfranco Zola, and Middlebrough's magician, Juninho.
Modric, still only 24, has a tiny frame, but the skill and vision he has is similar to that of current United midfield legend Paul Scholes
According to speculation, Sir Alex sees him as the long-term successor when his ginger-haired midfield commander calls it day on his sparkling career.
Against Arsenal and Chelsea, the tiny-framed midfielder dictated the pace of the play with clever runs, superb passing and awareness.
Bait
A lot of the speculation is linking Michael Carrick to be used as part of the deal, which would see the English international head back to White Hart Lane.
However, there is one player that Redknapp has had his eye on in the past - Ben Foster, and if Ferguson plays his cards right he could off load the young goalkeeper without much criticism.
Foster has failed to lock down the United No. 2 position behind first-choice Edwin van der Sar after he committed countless mistakes earlier in the season when the big Dutchman was out injured.
van der Sar was out of action for the best part of two months to start the 2009/10 season with a broken bone in his hand, so it opened the door to Foster, who was favored by Ferguson over Tomasz Kuszczak, but eventually the Pole took over the duties as being the back-up.
Some how, some way, Foster has seem to be getting a pass from the Old Trafford faithful and the English press despite his poor kicking game and spoty goalkeeping skills.
Ferguson even mentioned this in his last press conference, because some people were saying that Foster should make the bench over Kuszczak without any justification - well beside the fact he is English and one of Fabio Capello's choices for this summer's World Cup.
If Sir Alex Ferguson could get £7 million for Foster and pay only £25 million for Modric in this inflated transfer market, it would be a good bit of business for Manchester United, because they would be getting a proven Premier League player and as the Old Trafford faithful has seen the English 'keeper seems not to have the mental strength to handle the pressure on one of the world's biggest football stages.
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