{"id":6864,"date":"2019-08-28T11:04:20","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T11:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=6864"},"modified":"2026-07-09T17:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T17:33:17","slug":"if-they-need-me-im-here-i-could-easily-still-play-in-the-premier-league-zlatan-ibrahimovic-opens-the-door-to-sensational-manchester-united-return-after-romelu-lukaku-and-alexis-sanchez-left-f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2019\/08\/28\/if-they-need-me-im-here-i-could-easily-still-play-in-the-premier-league-zlatan-ibrahimovic-opens-the-door-to-sensational-manchester-united-return-after-romelu-lukaku-and-alexis-sanchez-left-f\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;If they need me, I&#8217;m here. I could EASILY still play in the Premier League&#8217;: Zlatan Ibrahimovic opens the door to sensational Manchester United return after Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez left for Inter Milan"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"mol-bullets-with-font\">\n<li class=\"class\"><b>Zlatan Ibrahimovic has opened the door to the return to Manchester United<\/b><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><strong>The 37-year-old striker left United 17 months ago to join MLS side LA Galaxy\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li class=\"class\"><b>He said: &#8216;I could easily still play in Premier League. If United need me, I&#8217;m here&#8217;<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Zlatan Ibrahimovic insisted he could still easily cut it in the Premier League, before teasing Manchester United by claiming he was ready to return to England if they &#8216;need&#8217; him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The Swedish striker, now 37, is currently plying his trade at MLS side LA Galaxy, where he is showing few signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He netted 29 times in 53 appearances for United and two goals against rivals LAFC on Sunday took his tally for Galaxy this season to 22.<\/p>\n<div class=\"artSplitter mol-img-group\">\n<div class=\"mol-img\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-b5d37547d5a72566\" class=\"blkBorder img-share b-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2019\/08\/28\/07\/17774188-0-image-a-1_1566974710344.jpg\" alt=\"LA Galaxy's Zlatan Ibrahimovic has opened the door to the return to Manchester United\" width=\"634\" height=\"423\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">LA Galaxy&#8217;s Zlatan Ibrahimovic has opened the door to the return to Manchester United<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">United, meanwhile, have let Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez leave this summer as they try and rebuild under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and 17-year-old Mason Greenwood are now their only senior striking options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I could play easily in the Premier League. So if United needs me, I&#8217;m here,&#8217; Ibrahimovic said. &#8216;But Galaxy has me so I&#8217;m sorry.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Seventeen months have passed since Ibrahimovic left Old Trafford, in which time United have slipped further behind rivals Manchester City and Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">But despite his typical confidence the striker insisted he has no immediate plans to head back across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Nah, I did my job in Europe,&#8217; he said. &#8216;I enjoyed it, I have 33 trophies that I brought with me here and hopefully I can get something here. Then we&#8217;ll see where that adventure finishes.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">United were beaten 2-1 at home by Crystal Palace on Saturday to leave Solskjaer&#8217;s side with only one win from their opening three Premier League games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Ibrahimovic still keeps an eye on his former side from Los Angeles, claiming: &#8216;I saw the last game and I think they were unlucky. If (Marcus Rashford) scored the penalty, it&#8217;s a different game, but a game in England is not finished until it&#8217;s finished. Anything can happen, especially in the last minutes where everything is in the heat of the moment.&#8217;<\/p>\n<div class=\"artSplitter mol-img-group\">\n<div class=\"mol-img\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-7732691324703bd9\" class=\"blkBorder img-share b-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2019\/08\/28\/07\/17774470-7401885-image-a-9_1566974896516.jpg\" alt=\"The 37-year-old spent two years at United before leaving last January to join LA Galaxy\" width=\"634\" height=\"423\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">The 37-year-old spent two years at United before leaving last January to join LA Galaxy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Patrick van Aanholt scored a late winner at Old Trafford after the ball was lost by Paul Pogba, whose performances have once again been thrust into the spotlight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The midfielder looks set to stay in England for at least another year after United resisted attempts by him and his agent Mino Raiola to force a move to Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Ibrahimovic and Pogba were close while both at United and the Swedish striker recently claimed it &#8216;made no sense&#8217; for the club to keep the Frenchman if he wants to leave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The pair still keep in touch, but Ibrahimovic stayed tight-lipped on what they discuss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I speak with him. A lot of advice I give \u2013 but nothing I share with you,&#8217; Ibrahimovic smiled.<\/p>\n<div class=\"artSplitter mol-img-group\">\n<div class=\"mol-img\">\n<div class=\"image-wrap\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-e7a75b910c97c0ba\" class=\"blkBorder img-share b-loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2019\/08\/28\/08\/17774868-7401885-image-a-10_1566976429516.jpg\" alt=\"Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is bereft of options up front with only three players to choose from\" width=\"634\" height=\"423\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"overlay-icon mobile-gallery\">\n<div class=\"mobile-gallery-icon\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is bereft of options up front with only three players to choose from<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The 37-year-old also admitted he&#8217;s not surprised Wayne Rooney is cutting short his American adventure in favour of a return to England.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rooney, who has spent the last year at MLS side DC United, will join Derby as a player-coach in January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I&#8217;m not surprised (he&#8217;s going back). Absolutely not,&#8217; Ibrahimovic said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;He came, he tried, he did his best and, yeah, he had patience. You need a lot of patience and it has finished the patience.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The Swede added: &#8216;I&#8217;m in a different position than Wazza. Wazza is much younger than me. I am old but still dominating, still making the difference.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>source:dailymail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zlatan Ibrahimovic has opened the door to the return to Manchester United The 37-year-old striker left United 17 months ago to join MLS side LA Galaxy\u00a0 He said: &#8216;I could easily still play in Premier League. If United need me, I&#8217;m here&#8217; Zlatan Ibrahimovic insisted he could still easily cut it in the Premier League, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":6865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6409],"tags":[1374,188,7273,113,9331,8908,305,5262,1258,6621,8123,7090,3360,640,572,10560,197,7123,10634,404,11252,501,115,507,7448,8258,9158,419,8079,170,190,11973,5911,349,13256,10535,267,114,196,10599,570,1559,268,7333,9209,10329,5235,3954,594,9206],"class_list":["post-6864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-alexis","tag-alexis-sanchez","tag-anthony","tag-anthony-martial","tag-city","tag-coach","tag-crystal-palace","tag-cut","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-eye","tag-games","tag-greenwood","tag-ibrahimovic","tag-inter-milan","tag-la","tag-liverpool","tag-los-angeles","tag-lost","tag-lukaku","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-city","tag-manchester-united","tag-marcus-rashford","tag-martial","tag-mason-greenwood","tag-milan","tag-mino-raiola","tag-mls","tag-old-trafford","tag-ole-gunnar-solskjaer","tag-one","tag-patrick","tag-paul-pogba","tag-players","tag-pogba","tag-premier-league","tag-rashford","tag-real-madrid","tag-rebuild","tag-romelu-lukaku","tag-rooney","tag-sanchez","tag-summer","tag-swedish","tag-trade","tag-wayne-rooney","tag-will","tag-who","tag-zlatan-ibrahimovic"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51929,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6864\/revisions\/51929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}