Manchester United harboured reservations over Ivan Toney and Victor Osimhen which led to them abandoning pursuits for the strikers, a report has revealed.
The Red Devils have brought in a new centre forward in each of the last two summer transfer windows, in part at the request of manager Erik ten Hag.
Rasmus Hojlund joined from Atalanta for an initial £64m in 2023, with Joshua Zirkzee arriving from Bologna a year later for £36.5m.
But they weren’t the only strikers on United’s radar. ESPN claim that over the last couple of years, the club were alerted to Toney while at Brentford and Osimhen when he was in scintillating form for Napoli.
Toney scored 20 goals during the 2022/23 Premier League season before being hit with a lengthy ban for betting offences. By the time he was able to return to action in January 2024, he had entered the last 18 months of his Brentford contract and made little attempt to hide his desire to leave.
Prior to their acquisition of Zirkzee this summer, Toney was considered by the United hierarchy. However, they were concerned about his ability to press opponents and his overall fit in Ten Hag’s system.
90min reported back in April that United were keen on Toney in the first place because of the seniority and experience he would be able to bring to a young squad. He was eventually sold to Saudi Pro League side Al Ahli on deadline day.
Meanwhile, United watched over Osimhen during Napoli’s title-winning 2022/23 campaign, and though he scored an impressive 31 goals in 39 games across all competitions, it was decided the Nigerian wasn’t good enough at holding the ball up.
United were also hesitant of judging Osimhen on his Serie A form given Romelu Lukaku thrived there with Inter, either side of disappointing spells with the Red Devils and Chelsea.
Osimhen held talks with Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain over a move this year, but neither could reach an agreement with Napoli and he instead moved to Galatasaray on loan.
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