Manchester United will open talks with Mexico
striker Javier Hernandez over an improved contract
Friday May 13,2011
MANCHESTER United are set to reward Javier
Hernandez’s stunning first season in the Premier League with a pay
rise.
United will open talks with Mexico striker Hernandez
over an improved contract this summer in a bid to fend off interest
from Spain’s big three – Barcelona, Real Madrid and Valencia.
Hernandez, 22, has hit 20 goals in all competitions to
help Sir Alex Ferguson’s team to the brink of a record 19th league
title as well as into the Champions League final.
That will prompt United to rip up the £20,000-a-week
deal he signed following his £7million move from Chivas Guadalajara
last summer and hand him a new four-year contract worth £60,000 a
week.
Hernandez has done so well he has taken the place of
United’s £30.75m record-signing Dimitar Berbatov and raised
question marks over the Bulgarian’s future. And with three games
left, he could even overtake leading scorer Berbatov, who has 22
goals.
Patrice Evra, meanwhile, has taunted United’s title
rivals Chelsea and Arsenal by insisting the outcome of the Premier
League title race was never in doubt.
Evra said: “People were starting to say, ‘It’s the end
of the United empire’ after we drew at home to West Brom back in
the autumn. But I remember saying after we played Bursaspor in the
Champions League, ‘You have to pay the musician to the end of the
show, not now’. I wasn’t just saying it to look good in the
newspapers. I said it because I believed it.
“I was convinced that no team were better than us this
season. Now that’s the result – if we go to Blackburn and get a
result, we will be champions. I’m not surprised because I always
believed we were the best.”