Chelsea, not Man Utd, the likely long-term destination for Gotze

While Mario Gotze’s musings in German newspaper Bild that ‘going abroad would be nice’ at some stage of his career may not have Europe’s elite rushing for their cheque books, the man who scored the winning goal in the World Cup final’s admission is certainly of interest.

Bayern Munich’s 22-year-old speed merchant was linked with Manchester United when just a teenager at Borussia Dortmund back in December 2011, but ended up moving to the Allianz Arena 18 months later for a whopping  €37 million.

After the 13-time Premier League champions, who are 4/5 to make it back into the top four this term, spent north of £130m during coach Louis van Gaal’s first summer in charge, putting two and two together may lead to the assumption that United will target Gotze again soon.

However, the way the Red Devils are expected to set up under the Dutchman suggests there would be little room for the 37-cap Die Mannschaft star at Old Trafford.

Gotze is nominally listed as a central attacking-midfielder by respected website WhoScored.com, although the torrid time he gave Arsenal left-back Kieran Gibbs in Die Roten’s 2-0 Champions League win at the Emirates last February showed that the former BVB man is just as adept at right-forward.

Unless Van Gaal dramatically switches his tactics to incorporate three pacey attacking-midfielders behind a centre-forward, with more creativity coming from midfield, then it’s difficult to see where Gotze could be accommodated.

Chelsea, on the other hand, are currently employing such a 4-2-3-1 under Jose Mourinho, with three from Oscar, Eden Hazard, Andre Schurrle and Willian bombing on behind Diego Costa up front, while Cesc Fabregas keeps the key passes coming from midfield.

Gotze would be an ideal addition to the Blues’ wide-forward/number 10/attacking-midfield ranks, but it’s hard to see the Bavarian leaving Bayern any time soon, having been revealed as a Pep Guardiola favourite by Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp last season.

Guardiola’s men are 7/2 second-favourites to regain the Champions League, which they lost last year, six hours drive up the road from their homestead in Berlin.

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