Fabrizio Romano says £45m striker is one of "three or four options" for Man Utd
Man Utd have been linked with several strikers with Fabrizio Romano explaining how keen they are on Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Manchester United are no different to every big club in the Premier League with a striker top of the agenda on the recruitment team’s shopping list.
The respective situations for those that have been linked with United continue to be up in the air with Liverpool and Newcastle United playing mind games with each other and Chelsea sitting pretty after the additions of Liam Delap and Joao Pedro. For a combined £85m, the Club World Cup winners look to have stolen a march on their rivals.
United are still “active” in the pursuit of Hugo Ekitike, however, his fate seems inextricably linked with Alexander Isak’s. Both Liverpool and Newcastle claim to want to have both strikers at their disposal by the end of the transfer window, but the reality is the smart money is on them being seperated one way or another.
Fabrizio Romano explains Man Utd striker plan and Jean-Philippe Mateta position
Where this leaves United in terms of striker options remains unclear with Liverpool’s interest in Jean-Philippe Mateta leading transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano to clarify the Old Trafford outfit’s position having been linked to the Crystal Palace striker already.
Speaking to GiveMeSport, the transfer guru said: “For Man United, there are several options for the striker position. I think it will depend on how much they spend on different targets. It’s going to be about the budget.
”Mateta is a player they considered already at the start of the transfer window as one of the options being assessed, but United never made any bid to Palace or to the player. I think they have three or four options for the striker position but, for now, the focus is on closing the [Bryan] Mbeumo deal.”
How much would Mateta cost United if the wanted him?
Despite playing for a low mid-table team, Mateta has 30 goals in the last two Premier League seasons after a relatively slow start to his career in England after moving from Mainz where he scored 24 in 67 in the Bundesliga. Again, hardly a heavyweight or consistent Champions League team.
The Eagles paid less than £10m for Mateta in 2022 and TNT Sports believe that an offer in the region of £45m could be enough to tempt the FA Cup winners into parting company with their main striker. With Eberechi Eze in demand and Michael Olise having left last summer, Steve Parish has a difficult task to provide Oliver Glasner with the forward line he needs to compete in four competitions this season.
As Romano says, United are restricted with the budget and have already committed £62.5m to sign Matheus Cunha as well as a similar fee to get a deal for Bryan Mbeumo over the line. Competing with Liverpool and Newcastle is probably unrealistic because of the money that has been spent, however, there is still enough to help improve Ruben Amorim’s squad.
Mateta knows the Premier League and is low risk, but an extra £10m could be saved by signing Christopher Nkunku for £35m who had the same number of goal contributions as the Palace striker last season. The exciting option, would be to pay a little more and bring VFB Stuttgart’s towering No.9 Nick Woltemade to England.
A 6ft 5inch tall target man whose dribbling has been compared to Lionel Messi but with the work rate of Wayne Rooney. At £55m, someone could land a bargain.