Manchester United have sprung a surprise by signing Romelu Lukaku but he has proved himself ready to step up and lead the line at Old Trafford

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Manchester United are set to sign Romelu Lukaku this summer after it emerged that a £75m fee has been agreed for the striker.

The news has caught even die-hard United fans off guard, as it emerges the Everton front man will soon be wearing the red of United.

Here, Red Devils fan SAM PEOPLES of The Peoples Person blog pens his thoughts about the arrival of the big Belgian...

Manchester United are set to sign Romelu Lukaku after a £75m fee has been agreed

The signing reunites Lukaku with Jose Mourinho who was manager in his Chelsea days

While Lukaku did not shine against United, Reds fan Sam Peoples is delighted he will sign

Romelu Lukaku is set to join Manchester United for £75m and I will be the first to admit I did not see it coming.

Real Madrid played hardball over Alvaro Morata and negotiations for the Spanish striker were drawn out into a transfer saga. Real Madrid wanted the full £70m asking price for Morata, United refused to pay it and ultimately those hardball tactics have backfired.

Lukaku will now become Man United’s new No 9 next season but is it a transfer all United fans will be happy with? 

The immediate reaction to the news is one of complete surprise because we’d all been getting excited about the thought of Morata joining United, and how we could shape up with him in the team. Now, that’s been turned upside down and Lukaku will be that player instead.

United had chased Alvaro Morata but could not agree a fee with his club Real Madrid

I’ll be the first to admit I feel the all-round game of Morata would have suited United more than Lukaku, but how can you not be happy at signing a 24-year-old striker who scored 25 Premier League goals last season and has more than 80 Premier League goals already in his career? Lukaku is a deadly striker, he is Premier League proven and ready to make the big step up to a club like United to lead the line.

Is he ready for that step up? Mentally, he’s completely ready but there will always be an adjustment phase and that will be the case with Lukaku. 

He’ll be joining a Jose Mourinho side once again, the same manager who sold him previously, but just like Juan Mata we have seen that Mourinho’s previous decisions were not always personal. If he has signed Lukaku, that is because he believes in him and that will go a big way to helping Lukaku settle quickly.

For United fans, the concerns about Lukaku will mainly come from the fact that he has played pretty poorly almost every time we have played Everton. Paddy McNair and Daley Blind have pocketed Lukaku on separate occasions and in matches we’ve seen Lukaku play the full 90 minutes, rarely has he shone. 

Yet these are individual matches, and over the course of last season Lukaku scored 25 goals and has clearly done enough to show Mourinho he can lead United’s line and that’s good enough for me.

Mourinho's repaired relationship with Juan Mata bodes well for Lukaku joining on fresh terms

We’ll certainly set up differently with Lukaku than we would have with Morata because of their different styles of play. With Lukaku, United need to make sure our attack as a whole is creating enough and delivering chances to Lukaku in the box; if we can do that, he’ll score goals aplenty. 

Morata’s better all-round game may have seen him drop deeper far more often like Zlatan Ibrahimovic did last season, and that was always considered a negative because we never had a striker in the box when chances were created. Lukaku will live in that position as an out-and-out striker and that’s exactly what we need. In that sense, you could argue Lukaku actually does suit us more.

Lukaku scored 25 goals last season in what was an improved Everton side but next year he’ll be playing with the likes of Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Anthony Martial and Juan Mata creating for him. There is every chance he’ll score 30 goals next year and with a fee of £75m, that will be the expectation based on the standards he set himself in the 2016-17 season.

Lukaku scored 25 goals last season for Everton and could prove to be an important signing

I’m delighted at United signing Lukaku. Sure, Morata was the man I wanted but that might have been in part due to the intense speculation over the last few weeks. 

Now, United have got their man, have got a new No 9 with Premier League pedigree and if we can create as many chances as we did last season, he’ll be a revelation for United.

Back in May 2013, Lukaku scored a hat-trick against United in Sir Alex Ferguson’s last ever game as United manager. Now, he’s gone full circle and fans are all hoping he’ll be scoring plenty more hat-tricks but this time in the United shirt instead of against us. 

HOW SPORTSMAIL LED THE STORY 

Matt Lawton's exclusive story on Lukaku's move from the July 6 edition of The Daily Mail

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