Manchester United are out to strengthen their ranks this summer after missing out on European football
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Manchester United will hope to quickly move on from a tough night in Bilbao as the Premier League season comes to a close this Sunday. United welcome Unai Emery’s Aston Villa to Old Trafford and the Red Devils will hope to salvage a final-day result after what has been a miserable campaign.
Victory in what is a dead rubber for United would be scant consolation after their poor showing in Europa League final defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, but a result against the Villains could at least give United the dignity of rising a place or two up the final league table and obtaining the higher prize money which comes with that. Villa are still in with a strong shout of Champions League football and will go into the match as favourites.
Despite defeat to Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs Ruben Amorim looks poised to stay in Manchester, with the board likely to give him the chance to bring in the right players to fit his wing-back system ahead of a make-or-break season next term.
United’s lack of goals cost them on Wednesday
The Red Devils have suffered with a lack of goals in the team throughout the season, and this cost them dearly on Wednesday night. Much-criticised striker Rasmus Hojlund never looked like coming close to scoring, his replacement Joshua Zirkzee was more worried about nice link-up play from deep than getting into the box, and Amorim had to resort to putting Harry Maguire up front late on, with similar results to his Lyon heroics not materialising on this occasion.
United are the fifth-lowest goal scorers in the Premier League and their desperate need for new forward options showed. Several names have been linked such as Matheus Cunha, Liam Delap and Jonathan David, with fresh reports linking the Red Devils to Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo.
Former chief scout Mick Brown, who worked at Old Trafford for over a decade, revealed to Football Insider that United are keen on Mbeumo and are likely to hold talks with the Cameroon international.
The Red Devils are targeting both Mbeumo and AFC Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, though it is likely that they will only push forward with a deal for one of the two for financial reasons.
United should do everything they can to sign Mbeumo
On the back of an outstanding season with the Bees, Mbeumo could be the perfect signing for United as Amorim hopes to remedy the club’s goalscoring problem. Boasting 19 Premier League goals this campaign, the 25-year-old is the Premier League’s fifth-top scorer and is surely destined for bigger things than Brentford. Should United fail to sign him, then someone else will.
Though United is a different proposition entirely, Mbeumo seems like the type of character who would be able to deal with the pressure. He took on the burden given to him by Brentford after Ivan Toney’s betting suspension and subsequent sale, and has over 300 career appearances under his belt including 22 for Cameroon. With 69 goals and 51 assists totalling in 120 goal involvements for the Bees, Mbeumo has always contributed heavily but it feels as though he is only going to get better - and that is a scary prospect. He could transform United next season.
Fichajes recently reported that United have offered £54m for Mbeumo, who was recently nominated for Premier League Player of the Season. Thomas Frank and Brentford would be sad to see him go, but will likely have begun to come to terms with the prospect of their star man departing this summer.