Five strikers Man United could sign this summer

Viktor Gyokeres of 
Sporting CP

Manchester United are looking to sign a top quality centre-forward in the summer with Ruben Amorim reportedly losing faith and patience with Rasmus Hojlund.

This side needs a goalscorer but the lack of European football means the Reds face a battle to lure the continent’s top talents to Old Trafford.

With Bruno Fernandes eyeing up a possible move to the riches of the Saudi league, United could have a large chunk of money to spend on a replacement.

Here are five strikers the Reds could sign this summer

Viktor Gyokeres (Sporting)

The hottest property in Europe right now, Gyokeres has plundered 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting. He surely will not be with the Portuguese champions much longer, with every major side on the continent queuing for his signature. He will come at a heavy price, though, and surely a player of his quality will want to showcase his talent in the Champions League. His transfer makes the most sense as a player whom has played under Ruben Amorim at Sporting, is proven at the top level and fits this system like a glove.  It’s been a remarkable rise for Gyokeres – from Brighton squad player to one of the best in the business.

Victor Osimhen (Napoli, on loan at Galatasaray)

Another player in high demand, Osimhen has long been linked with a move to United. This move has more leverage than any potential deal for Gyokeres as Napoli want Alejandro Garnacho. United’s wantaway Argentine could be used as a makeweight to bring the Nigerian to Old Trafford, but without European football, United may struggle to compete with several other leading lights in the battle for Osimhen. A more all round attacking threat than his Sporting counterpart, his pace, strength and athleticism would provide some much-needed physicality to United’s attack.

Jean-Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace)

Different in style to both Gyokeres and Osimhen, Mateta’s starring role in Palace’s FA Cup win capped his finest season for the Eagles. A typical ‘battering ram’ of a centre-forward, Mateta’s assist for Eberechi Eze showcased everything the powerful Frenchman has to offer – he bullies defenders, runs in behind, can hold the ball up with a decent touch and gets on the end of balls into the box. Basically, everything Hojlund isn’t.

I would take Mateta at United in a heartbeat – proven in the Premier League, a player to have thrived in the 3-4-3 Amorim identikit and an instant upgrade in attack. Having gone down in south London folklore for his part in their FA-Cup exploits, the time has come for Mateta to move on from Palace’s perennial mid-tablers – even as they embark on their debut European campaign next term.

Mika Biereth (AS Monaco)

Biereth never played for the Gunners during his time in London (although he did make the first team bench), but has been a man reborn since moving to the Principality. Having hit 14 in 25 at Sturm Graz, the Dane continued his prolific season at Monaco with 13 goals in 18 games to fire them to a third place finish in Ligue 1. Like all of the other strikers on our list, Biereth is certain of Champions League football next season if he stays at Monaco, and any transfer would be his third in twelve months. Physical and quick, Biereth scored a hat-trick of hat-tricks in February alone and ten goals in as many games for Monaco saw him earn a first Denmark call

up. Hojlund’s compatriot and doppelganger has scored goals for fun on the continent and continues to go from strength to strength. A move back to the Premier League surely beckons on his current trajectory.

Hugo Ekitite (Eintract Frankfurt)

A relative unknown outside of Frankfurt until this season, Ekitite’s impressive numbers have attracted many a suitor. Despite losing star forward Omar Marmoush to City in January, unfashionable Frankfurt finished third in the Bundelisga, their highest position in 13 years, thanks to Ekitite’s 22 goals in 48 games – a decent return for a 22 year old in his first full season.
That form has catapulted him into the spotlight and caught the eye of several Premier League suitors. An intelligent and hard-working forward, Ekitite plies his trade both as a ‘traditional’ number nine but also as a ‘between the lines’ forward.
Like Hojlund, Ekitite is still young and has no Premier League experience so he’s a left field alternative with Amorim ideally looking for a more proven striker. He is expected to leave Frankfurt this summer with Newcastle and Chelsea also showing interest in the Frenchman. But the chance to turn United’s fortunes around and take us back to the top is still an attractive prospect and you can be sure United will be in the conversation when it comes to Ekitite. Given they sold Marmoush for 59m, Ekitite is likely to carry a similar price tag.

Welcome to the new reality of Man Utd in 2025

It is the morning after the night before. Barely 24 hours on from events in Bilbao and I'm struggling to make sense of it all.
What has become of the club I've loved since I first set eyes on it at six years old? It was not supposed to be like this. We were not supposed to go this low. I didn't think it could get any worse last season when we finished eighth. This is not the club I fell in love with attending that first game with my uncle almost three decades ago. I've never felt more dispirited or disconnected. To be honest, I'm at the point where I don't really care any more. 

Of course, as a fan you have to take the thick with the thin and there are, ultimately, bigger things in life than a team losing a game of football.

Bleak days ahead for Man Utd

But this seems and feels like so much more. So much worse than that. A team can lose finals, of course, and Gdansk in 2021 hurt. But at least then there was a fillip - we were unlucky to lose to Villarreal in that final and had a decent domestic season. We had the cushion of European football the next season and were going in the right direction. It stung but we could see a way forward.

Four years on and this defeat to the Hotspurs of Tottenham - a club infamous for its allergy to silverware - hurts like nothing I've ever had before. It will sting for the next few weeks and into the summer. I will still be hurting when next season's European competitions kick off without United. Even if we had stunk the gaff out in the Champions League, the financial benefits alone would have been worthwhile.

Instead, we are left with nothing. No European football, no Viktor Gyokeres or Rayan Cherki. Inflated ticket prices and the prospect of all our rivals strengthening whilst we get weaker. This is bleak, ladies and gents. It's very bleak. I can't see how we improve for next season. I don't expect us to be anywhere near the top half of the Premier League again in 2025-26 either. Who would have thought we'd be here when Erik ten Hag was sacked. Since then, United have collected only 28 points, slipped to 16th in the league with ten wins and lost a make of break European final to Spurs.

These players will go down in infamy

The initial grief and shock has come and gone, and my sadness has turned to rage. I'm absolutely furious this has been allowed to happen. My anger towards the Glazers, bubbling beneath the surface for 20 years, has now reached boiling point. This is all their fault. They got the club into this mess through criminal negligence and financial mismanagement. I'm fuming at the players for binning the league off to win this competition then turning in the most apathetic, anodyne and arrythmic showing I've ever seen from any side in a major final. The final criminal act of negligence in a season of infamy. This squad will forever be remembered as the United side that resided over our worst season in living memory and lost to Tottenham in a final. 

A touch over 17,000 Reds spent thousands of pounds in getting to Bilbao - some without tickets or beds - taking the proverbial trains, planes and automobiles for one of the biggest matches in United's history. That performance was an insult, a disgrace, to every single one of those fans who made the journey. at great personal cost and expense. The players on the field never came close to matching the fans passion, energy and dedication. The 'Bilbao or bust' tightrope spun from United's grasp at the final hurdle. As the minutes ticked down and United fought against the sying of the light, I never like we were going to score. 

Reds miss out on continental feast

United will be without European football of any kind in a season for only the second time in my life. The last time was 2014-15 under Louis van Gaal - before then it was 1989/90 in the fledgling early days of Alex Ferguson. Fans, players and coaching staff will have to adapt to the new reality of playing oen game a week. 

The counter argument is no European football might actually help: it's not like we were going to win it and, now, Ruben Amorim can spend more time fine tuning his methods in training. But there are also significant drawbacks - the lack of 'pull' when approaching new potential new signings, far less TV, broadcast and commercial revenue and an escalation of our already dire financial situation. 

There needs to be clarity from the club now. Where do we go from here? What is the INEOS vision for the summer? What does the future look like? There will be sales - Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund will likely leave and don't rule out Bruno Fernandes going either. 

United need a better attack, a better goalkeeper with Andre Onana still not convincing two seasons in, and better options at wing-back. I admire Amorim's brutal honesty, but he is a struggling employee who needs clarification and support from those above and around him. 

It's a Heartache 

United are hurtling headlong towards financial and footballing oblivion and everyone seems powerless to prevent it. It will be tough to take as we step out into the wilderness and many years in the doldrums before the beast stirs again. Often, the only way out of situations like this is to simply plough on through.
This is a harsh lesson: no one is above rebuke, no one is above the fickle hand of complacency and misalignment. What we're seeing and living through is the culmination of two decades worth of treachery, negligence and abhorrent decision making at every turn. 

It is both apt and painfully ironic Amorim is serenaded with our own terrace take of the Bonnie Tyler hit 'It's a Heartache'. Right now, our hearts certainly are breaking at the state of our beloved football club. As for Amorim bringing the glory days again.... that, too, looks a long long way in the future. 

Where on earth do Manchester United go from here?

Well it actually happened. The unthinkable, the unfathomable. Manchester United were beaten in the game they simply could not afford to lose.

After writing off a sinking domestic season in December to go all in for the riches of Europa League glory, with the pot of gold on the other side, United went to Bilbao and blew it. Blew it against a side even worse than us that does not win these types of games. United’s players, staff and fans will wake up this morning not quite knowing how damaging this will be.

United will struggle to get their signings

For one thing, we can forget any notion of Viktor Gyokeres and Rayan Cherki now. United will sign Matheus Cunha, whose goals and physicality will improve our toothless attack. Liam Delap will probably come in to complement Joshua Zirkzee. Rasmus Hojlund’s self inflicted fate remains unclear.

There will be a lower than usual summer spend. Certainly lower than necessary. An inability to move as many players off the books, meaning a reliance on the same squad next season. New ways for INEOS to make us fans feel the pinch – schemes to move them, to raise prices further and monetize things that previously were not. We will only watch as our rivals get stronger and we get weaker.

Ruben Amorim is not wholly to blame for this mess. He inherited a shambles of a squad in the middle of a shambolic season and barely had the funds to sign Patrick Dorgu from Lecce. He does deserve the summer and the start of next season, but his credit in the bank is fast running out.

Amorim not entirely to blame - but has to do better

Amorim got it wrong, badly wrong, in that final. United struggle against opponents who make a match even remotely physical. Yet Manuel Ugarte, the one player we’ve got who can handle that sort of contest, was nowhere to be seen. He had to start alongside Casemiro, who looked a shadow of the player that has come in clutch so often in this European run. Instead, he did not play a minute. 

Each stride United have taken to get here - from the first game against Twente to the thrill-a-minute classic against Lyon - count for nothing now. 

The Mason Mount selection failed. Alejandro Garnacho should have started. The substitutions came too late and there was no attempt to change anything and gain any modicum of control in a game that was slipping from our grasp. At the very least, we had to neutralise Spurs midfield, but failed to do so. Kobbie Mainoo, man of the match in the FA Cup final, came on with only minutes left. Luke Shaw looked unfit, off the pace and out of his depth at this level. Amorim ultimately shied away from what got him, and us, this far. He will go away and will regret the mistakes made. This will hurt for a long time. 

Managers can make mistakes. Pep Guardiola got it wrong in City’s final loss to Palace. It does not mean he should be sacked or leave immediately. Top level sport doesn’t work like that.

United facing uncertain future - and let the fans down 

From a purely sporting perspective, no one would have been expecting this United to challenge for the top honours. Nobody will expect us to qualify for it next season, either, with INEOS and this abhorrent group having resided over the worst season in the club’s modern history.

This was a match in which United came into at a crossroads: win it, and something beautiful could bloom. Lose it, and United’s road to recovery would be that bit more arduous, that bit more difficult.

This was more than just losing a game of football. This was a manager in desperate need of renewal after overseeing some of the worst performances this club has ever seen. It was a squad of players who have delivered those performances, many of them on massively inflated contracts (to go with their equally inflated egos) that reflect the size of the club they play for and not their contribution to it.

As ever, United’s magnificent band of travelling supports made the pilgrimage to Bilbao by any means possible – boats, trains, planes and automobiles – and were ‘rewarded’ by the worst display I’ve ever seen from any team in a European final.

The players do not deserve the unstinting loyalty and love bestowed upon them by the best fans in the world.

Spurs were not much better but did what they had to do. Their midfield beefed up by the presence and physicality of Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Betancur and Pape Sarr, Spurs made this like a Premier League game and United’s feeble follies had no answer. It meant Ange Postecoglou’s fitful side have beaten us four times in the same season. When United needed players to step up and help out workaholic captain Bruno Fernandes, there were none. Losing to the worst Tottenham team in a generation, on the way to their first silverware in a generation. These players will carry that with them forever. For a good few of them, there is no coming back from it. 

All eyes on INEOS as summer looms 

The ownership group have suggested they want a United side capable of challenging for the title by 2028. Strangely, at times we have not looked far away but the chasm between us and Liverpool and Arsenal – even the likes of Newcastle. Forest and Villa – tells a different, sobering story. But yet, United have lost so many games 1-0 in a dire domestic league there is enough evidence to suggest only minor improvements, namely in goal and up front, are needed. It is a bizarre and baffling paradox.

And then there is Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his merry band of men in the corridors of power.

With no Champions League revenue to pay off the debt, Ratcliffe and his committee need to take responsibility instead of foisting it on to others who have done nothing but shown unrelenting loyalty.  He made a choice to partly purchase a football club and reached an agreement to stagger the nature of a full sale; he ultimately took control of decisions which impacted the lives of the human beings devoted to the club – our club.
It is nobody’s responsibility except his.

What needs to be fixed can only be done so by removal of the debt. That is Manchester United’s Apocalypse now… a can which has been kicked down the road until last night’s loss.
The cost must be burdened by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, or he should step aside and allow someone else to do it. Before another manager, another player, another supporter or another employee pays the price. 

Manchester United Basque in the glory… but the job is not done yet

United face Tottenham in an all English 
final on May 21

Follow, follow, follow...

And so it has come to pass. With the Basques of Bilbao conquered in more-convincing-than-expected fashion, Ruben Amorim and his unlikely lads will get their shot at season-saving redemption.

It would be some salvation – not only a third major trophy in three seasons (quite something for the worst United side in my lifetime), but the riches of Champions League football and the financial security it brings.

It wouldn’t, and shouldn’t, excuse the abominable car crash that has been the wreckage of the Reds season. Lowest ever league position, points tally, fewest number of wins in the Premier League era, and most losses (with three games left). But United will be back in the ancient northern coastal city for the final on 21 May. It would allow Amorim to recruit the right player profile for his system and new signings are more likely to want to join us – and for us to be able to afford them – with the Reds dining at the top table. It would also mean we have had a better campaign than Arsenal, yet again. The worst Manchester United in my lifetime has reached a fourth major final in as many seasons, and will bid to win a third major trophy in a row. 

You could argue Amorim would benefit from no European football next term, to go without it would actually help him and us: it would give him more time to instil his methodology and fine-tune his obligatory three-at-the-back system. Fewer matches means Amorim will have longer to work with the players at Carrington.

Unbeaten United's deeds of derring do 

Somehow, we got here. United’s dramatic high-wire act has been quite the ride. From the opening draw with Twente in the last knocking of Erik ten Hag’s tenure, to the brink of European glory. United have been in ‘do or die’ survival mode since Christmas, and have cleared every hurdle from Twente to Bilbao via Porto, Fenerbahce, Lyon and Sociedad - the only unbeaten side left in each of the three European competitions.

But why? Why this contrast between the team’s league woes and our other wordly deeds of derring do? None of us will know for sure, but there are a few potential factors: The fact the players gave up on the league months ago, the fact Europe is less physically demanding and a slower intensity, and Amorim’s 3-4-3 formation is continental in style and seems to suit the rigours of this marathon European voyage.

Not many people gave us a chance against Bilbao with United the rank outsiders against Spain’s fourth-best side. With the final in their home city, there seemed a sense of fate for the Basques to seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of playing in a European final on home soil. But United, as we have done so often, tore up the script and wrote a totally new one. United saved their two best performances of the season for a continental semi-final. Make it make sense.

But our job is not done yet, the mission not yet completed. We still have one more big assignment left.

The finishing line of one of United’s greatest ever acts of escapology may be within sight, but we have not crossed it. The last couple of miles are always the most difficult.

Amad Diallo will be fit for the final

Reds to face familiar foes in Bilbao showdown

Standing in our way are struggling divisional rivals Tottenham Hotspur in an-all Premier League dust up. It’s the worst case scenario: A club that does not win trophies under a manager who always wins one in his second season. They are in exactly the same position as us: one of English football’s biggest names languishing in unchartered territory in the lower reaches of the table. Hull City got to an FA Cup final and finished 16^th, Wigan did so and were relegated so it has happened before, but certainly not in a European final and not with both sides having completely stunk the gaff out. It’s a funny old game.

A club without a major trophy since 2008 – one of the longest droughts in football, and, like us, needing victory to save their season and qualify for the Champions League. This will be torture, hell on earth, and I’m going to hate every second of it. Gdansk level of pain x 50. Imagine being THAT club… no, let’s not go there. I don’t want to think about it but can’t stop doing so.
It will feel like a Premier League game and will be played like one against a side whom have doubled us and also knocked out the Carabao Cup…. fourth time lucky, right?

90 minutes to save our season 

And so it all comes down to this. The San Mames stadium in Bilbao in two weeks time and the chance to redeem ourselves. The jeopardy is high, the stakes are higher. A 59-game season decided in a single blink of the eye: 90 nervous and nail biting minutes to determine reap or ruin. A season’s worth of blood, sweat and tears settled by a single match.

The Europa League has grown in importance as United’s season has lurched from one catastrophe to another. It started out as a minor inconvenience but could be the most important silverware United have won in years.

Follow, follow, follow cause’ United are going to Bilbao. Let the piss boiling commence.