Manchester United recruited well during the summer transfer window, strengthening a number of important positions all over the squad.
But the work isn’t finished and one area they didn’t touch was up front, where a 37-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo and a perma-injured Anthony Martial are the only true ‘number nine’ options.
The January market isn’t always the easiest time to buy, with players not usually available in the same way as summer. Yet it isn’t a closed door and United’s capture of Bruno Fernandes midway through 2019/20 is a good example of the success that can be had in the winter window.
Preparation for the next transfer window has already begun – Erik ten Hag has confirmed January is on the radar, while there is a World Cup to contend with before then that is likely to have an impact on player availability and prices.
Read on for eight potential striker targets Manchester United could pursue in January.
Erik ten Hag was keen to bring Brian Brobbey to Old Trafford during the summer, which would have been a reunion for the pair after previously working together at Ajax – Brobbey was handed a debut by Ten Hag in 2020.
The Dutchman was poached by RB Leipzig last summer, only to rejoin Ajax on loan in January and quickly rediscover his old form once he was back in Amsterdam. That deal then became permanent for around €19m.
Brobbey has promised that he will leave again in the future – “I will provide a nice transfer fee for Ajax” – but could he be persuaded to choose United by Ten Hag, who has already been in touch via text message?
United were heavily linked with Moussa Dembele back in the summer of 2020 after the Frenchman had scored 44 goals in two seasons with Lyon, only to see him suddenly go off the boil.
A loan to Atletico Madrid in January 2021failed to rejuvenate him, but Dembele then surged back to form in the second half of last season by scoring 13 times in Lyon’s final 12 Ligue 1 games of the campaign.
The former Fulham talent, now 26 and potentially at his peak, is actually out of contract next summer and so Lyon may have to consider a cut-price January sale if they cannot agree a new deal with him.
This may seem a little wild because his first time in the Premier League wasn’t all that good and he isn’t known as a prolific…
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