JAVIER HERNANDEZ IS ON THE RISE
Manchester United will open talks with Mexico striker Javier Hernandez over an improved contract
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.”