Manchester United appear to have called dibs on Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazillian playmaker Douglas Costa after the player was spotted at Old Trafford, but he’s not gonna come cheap.

Alex Ferguson has been an huge admirer of Costa since he was back in Brazil with Gremio, but a deal reportedly fell through and the player went to Donetsk in Ukraine instead.

New United target Douglas Costa pictured here after helping Donetsk destroy Italian giants AS Roma in the Champions League.

Last weekend, however, the player was seen in the directors’ box at Old Trafford watching United do another one of their late jobs over Bolton, winning 1-0 thanks to a *SHOCK HORROR!* late Dimitar Berbatov goal. It’s only the second time in his United career that Berbatov has scored from the bench.

But back to Costa. He’s been instrumental in Shakhtar’s progression to the Champions League quarters, where they will face Barcelona. His crazy skills, superb dribbling ability and magic wand of a left foot has jacked his price up to a hefty 20 million pounds, though in today’s market I guess that ain’t too bad.

Some newspaper reports have him as Paul Scholes’ successor, but he’s more in the mould of Ronaldinho, an attacking midfielder who plays further up front. I’d liken him more to Nani, actually.

He ain’t gonna spray them passes around in midfield like Scholes, though Fergie has had some success in recent years reinventing players. Antonio Valencia of all people had a decent shift in central midfield against Bolton after Jonny “Calamity” Evans was sent off *DOUBLE SHOCK HORROR!* on his return to the side.

Anyway, why don’t you guys see for yourselves if he can cut it in at United, and whether he can play in central midfield: