David Ornstein reveals €75m minimum for Manchester United’s No. 1 target

Manchester United have spent the last two months of the summer transfer window looking at forwards who can help a take a team that finished an embarrassing 16th in the Premier League and turn them back to their previous status of Champions League regulars.

It’s been more than a decade since Manchester United were among the truly elite teams in English football – let alone European football – and a large part of that decline has to do with the dwindling standards of attacking play at the club.

Already, Manchester United have secured two of the best difference-makers in the Premier League from the 2024/25 season for new manager Ruben Amorim, plucking central playmaker/second striker Matheus Cunha from Wolves before nabbing right winger Bryan Mbeumo and his 20 goals from Brentford.

Now, Manchester United need to complete their quartet – adding Bruno Fernandes in there in the No. 10 role – by signing a legitimate star striker who can score 20 goals in a Premier League season.

It will be Manchester United or Newcastle

Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins has been mentioned as one possible target, but with the Lions doing their best to hold onto the veteran striker, most of the attention has turned towards Benjamin Sesko.

At the beginning of the window, it looked like Viktor Gyokeres would be the dream get at striker for Amorim and Man United after the Swedish international’s days of shining under the Portuguese manager’s tutelage in Lisbon.

But instead of Gyokeres joining Manchester United, he ended up signing with rivals Arsenal. And Sesko, once viewed as the favorite to be the next No. 9 at the Emirates, is now open for Manchester United.

According to a report from The Athletic’s David Ornstein, Bundesliga giants RB Leipzig have set their asking price for Benjamin Sesko at 75 million euros minimum, since they want that amount of money plus add-ons in order to complete a deal.

Although virtually every top club in need of a striker was linked to Sesko at the beginning of the transfer window, it appears that Chelsea have dropped off the race while Liverpool are more focused on adding Alexander Isak to Hugo Ekitike to complete an insane double-swoop of striker signings this summer.

Meanwhile, under threat of losing Isak – and having already lost out on Ekitike to Liverpool – Newcastle are right there neck-and-neck with Manchester United in the competition to sign the 22-year-old Bundesliga striker.

No club has reached an agreement yet for Sesko, and time is ticking for Manchester United to get a striker signing done. Sesko has all the tools to be a 20-30 goal player, and while the U23 man isn’t a sure thing just yet, he’s by far the better of the options out there – and 75 million euros isn’t unreasonable in lieu of anyone else out there.