Javier Hernandez leaving Manchester United for the Bundesliga – Reports
Javier Hernandez has been linked with a move away from Manchester United for some time now, and with deadline day today for European clubs (August 31) time is running out for any European suitors to seal the deal for the Mexican international. Hernandez has appeared a handful of times this season, notably missing a penalty in the second-leg victory over Club Brugge.
Reports in Germany, first reported by Kicker suggest that a £12 million deal for Hernandez will soon go through. The club in question is Bayer Leverkusen, who are currently sixth in the Bundesliga having won two and lost one from their opening three games. Having only scored three times, they are looking to bolster their attacking options with star striker Son Heung-min having just moved to Spurs.
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The Hernandez transfer situation has been long and drawn out. The Mexican forward suffered a broken collarbone on international duty, missing out on the Gold Cup that Mexico went on to win. However, he recovered from surgery quickly and hoped to seize the opportunity of more game time when Robin van Persie made the move to Turkey.
Manchester United signed Hernandez in 2010. He was coming in off the back of an impressive World Cup display in South Africa and was expected by many to become a Manchester United superstar. He became infamous for his often poor first-touch, but made up for that with his impressive ariel ability despite his diminutive stature.
He was also dubbed the modern Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for his ‘super-sub’ abilities, usually coming off the bench to impact the game with great success. This did put some strain on Hernandez who was unhappy with constantly being a substitute especially after Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
He recently spoke of his time so far at United and claimed he had suffered two ‘frustrating years’ at Old Trafford since Sir Alex left. He also described Louis van Gaal as a very strict manager.
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Hernandez spent last season on loan at Real Madrid where he had mixed success. He put them into the Champions League semi-final with a late, late goal to win the game but Madrid chose not to make the move permanent at the end of the season. With no future at Real Madrid, Hernandez was soon linked with a number of other clubs including West Ham and Spurs.
He was also named as a possible transfer target for Italian giants Inter Milan. Nothing came of that, and it became very difficult to plot where Hernandez would actually be going due to all the interest and constant speculation with little basis to go on as is the case for most transfers during the chaos that is the transfer window.
MLS side Orlando City, captained by Brazilian and AC Milan legend Kaka, were next in line for Hernandez and were seemingly very close to signing him. Orlando confirmed they were in talks with Javier Hernandez but then nothing ever materialised from those talks and Hernandez was back to square one at Manchester United.
If the move to Germany does go through, which it is expected to, Hernandez should be rewarded with an important role at Leverkusen. The best of luck to a really good player who perhaps just needs a fresh start. However it leaves United another striker down and with Rooney still being derided for his recent performances, deadline day could prove very tense indeed for United fans.
UPDATE: Javier Hernandez has completed a £9m move to Bayer Leverkusen as confirmed by Manchester United on Twitter.