Goals win football matches. It might seem like a simplistic thing to say, but it’s also true. For Manchester United, the fact that the club’s top scorer is ostensibly a midfielder in Bruno Fernandes, who also has the most assists, has to be seen as something of a problem.
The likes of Rasmus Højlund and Joshua Zikzee have offered little, so it won’t come as a massive surprise that many fans of the club are hoping that there will be a move to bring in one or two attacking talents when the transfer window opens.
The question is, who exactly is it that the Red Devils are rumoured to be after?
Liam Delap
Look back at the long history of Manchester United attacking talents and you will see the names of some of the best attackers ever. The likes of Wayne Rooney, Eric Cantona and Robin van Persie all wore the famous red and black shirt at one point or another, setting a level of expectation that supporters have come to have for those who line up for the club that they love.
It is perhaps understandable, therefore, that there is a sense of collective disappointment in the fact that the Old Trafford side are being linked with Liam Delap, who has failed to do enough to keep Ipswich Town in the Premier League this season.
@dylsfootyramble Liam Delap signing for Man Utd would be a disaster. #dylsfootyramble #premierleague #manutd #liamdelap
Not that the English forward has been a complete and utter failure, of course. He has essentially scored one in three for a team that has struggled to make any kind of impression on the top-flight, so it isn’t all that shocking that he is likely to be one of only a few players for the Tractor Boys who will still be playing Premier League football next season.
There is also the fact that he is likely to cost around £40 million, which could be a decent price for someone with English top-flight experience in a summer when the Red Devils are going to find their finances extremely limited.
Viktor Gyökeres
When Ruben Amorim left Sporting Lisbon, the rumours were that he promised that he wouldn’t head back to his former club in January to raid them and take their best players to Old Trafford. That agreement did not extend to the summer, however, so there are naturally links between Manchester United and Sporting’s Viktor Gyökeres, who has basically been worth a goal a game for his side.
He also has some experience of playing in the United Kingdom, having been on the books of Brighton & Hove Albion, Swansea City and Coventry City in years gone by.
“We’re probably going to see him in a [Man] United shirt” 👕
Will Viktor Gyökeres follow Rúben Amorim to Old Trafford? 👀 pic.twitter.com/7GBYEIxZLE
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) November 4, 2024
The Swedish striker has been described as a ‘human highlight reel’, so there is a strong chance that he’ll be linked with every club that needs to add goals to their game. That, of course, is likely to be a problem for a Manchester United side that is extremely unlikely to have Champions League football to offer him next season.
Arsenal, for example, will be desperate to see someone put the ball in the back of the net, given the fact that they will almost certainly miss out on the Premier League title thanks to a lack of goalscoring options. That might be why United have started to distance themselves from Gyökeres in recent weeks.
Victor Osimhen
Rumours of a Premier League club going in to bring Victor Osimhen to the English game have been swirling for years now, thanks in no small part to the fact that he won the Golden Boot at the FIFA Under-17s in 2015 and has continued to bang them in ever since. He was the first Nigerian to make the top ten of the Ballon d’Or in 2023 and scored 65 goals across 108 league games for Napoli.
In the summer of 2024 there were all sorts of stories going around of him leaving the Italian side, with the likes of Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea all linked with him before he eventually joined Galatasaray on loan.
Given the fact that he is only 26-years-old, it is unlikely that the player will be desperate to move to what is effectively semi-retirement in Saudi Arabia, especially if there is a Premier League club willing to offer him a way back into one of Europe’s biggest divisions.
Having played in Germany, France and Italy, a move to England would mean that it is only Spain that he won’t have spent any significant time in. There is also a feeling amongst the Manchester United hierarchy that he has what it takes to make it in the English top-flight, with a cut-price deal being more than possible.