Fortune: Summer Speculation Is Inevitable

The media landscape has changed dramatically since 1999 when Quinton Fortune signed for Manchester United.

Soon after the Reds clinched the Treble, a deal was quietly agreed with Atletico Madrid B to sign the South African, long before the move surfaced in the English press. Eighteen years later, the situation has altered significantly with every vague link between a player and a club, no matter how tenuous, being duplicated in multiple sources within hours.

At the launch for September's Legends game against Barcelona at Old Trafford, Fortune spoke to MUTV about the current obsession with transfers that engulfs the football world during the close season.

"That's just going to happen every summer, with so many players being linked," he said. "It’s [Antoine] Griezmann one day and [Kylian] Mbappe, the young French player, the next day and there are so many other players too. But it’s what you want and what you expect - players to be linked to Manchester United."

Fortune hopes Jose Mourinho will be just as successful as he was last year with his acquisitions, as he expects the boss to plot an assault on the Premier League title in 2017/18.

"Hopefully, we will get some signings as good as the ones we got last season - Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eric Bailly and Micki [Henrikh Mkhitaryan]. All were high quality and the deals were done very quickly," the former midfielder added.

"He [Jose] was very clear on the players he wanted and it was good to see that we went out and got them quickly. We settled them in, and it took a bit of time, but they’ve been brilliant, every single one of them.

"I hope we’ll have the same kind of summer, bringing in a few new faces and strengthening the club. Manchester United always need to strengthen, it’s good for competition, and the aim next season in my opinion, and I’m sure the manager will think the same, has got to be to win the Premier League. It’s nice being back in the Champions League but the main goal will be winning the league."