Arsenal sporting director decision may have sealed Benjamin Sesko to Man United landmark deal
Man Utd are eyeing a move for Benjamin Sesko with Arsenal doing Ruben Amorim a last-minute favour.
Manchester United were always going to sign a new striker this summer after watching Liverpool stroll to the league and only luck keeping them out of a relegation battle.
The Premier League title is a distant possibility but Ruben Amorim will want to take his side as high up the table as possible and at least compete for Champions League places. With no prolific No.9 to rely on last year, goals dried up, as did the points, which led to the club’s worst season in modern history and saw the Red Devils become a laughing stock in the process.
Having learned a painful lesson, the Old Trafford recruitment team has set about delivering the type of players with the right technical and mental attributes needed for Amorim to deliver what he did at Sporting Lisbon, but it won’t be easy. Matheus Cunha was a surprise signing, but is a known quantity and won’t have to adapt to the country or the league, he is relatively risk free from a squad building perspective, as is the arrival of Bryan Mbeumo. Both will bring goals to United’s squad.
Arsenal do Man Utd a favour after Benjamin Sesko about turn
In a twist of fate, United could benefit from a transfer decision made by Arsenal after the £64m signing of Viktor Gyokeres when it looked for so long like RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko was going to be the Gunners’ new main man up front. Amorim seemed certain to be reunited with Gyokeres, however, the London outfit’s sporting director Andrea Berta had other ideas and went against almost the entire Arsenal recruitment team to land the Sweden international.
Writing in The Independent, Miguel Delaney explained just how close the deal for Sesko to move to Arsenal was and why they signed Gyokeres instead: “The Gyokeres signing also signals a shift in another way. It emphasises the new power of sporting director Andrea Berta. That can be divined in how abruptly Arsenal changed plans. The club had been working on Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko for 18 months before Berta arrived. The Slovenian’s agent had been at the club several times. Arsenal had spoken to his camp about how he’d fit with the team, even how he’d settle in London.
“The staff were close to unanimous in going for Sesko, although Berta had some reservations. He wondered whether a £65m basic price was too much, and kept suggesting Gyokeres, as well as Ollie Watkins and Goncalo Ramos as alternatives. A more classic school of the sporting director, Berta is said to still value relationships and eyewitness assessment more than analytics. So, once Leipzig started dragging negotiations, Berta pushed to switch.”
Path cleared for United to make Sesko move
What the Gyokeres move did is open the door for United. They too have been watching Sesko, but they have had their eye on the RB Leipzig striker since as far back as 2022 before signing Rasmus Hojlund in 2023. It isn’t easy to compare a player in the Bundesliga to one playing in Portugal's Primeira Liga. There is more depth in Germany and more players have left there to be a success in the Premier League in terms of strikers, however, not every player has been a success. For every Erling Haaland, there is a Jadon Sancho. Coincidentally, Sesko has been compared to Haaland in the past too.
Gyokeres record speaks for itself, he hasn’t just been prolific for Sporting Lisbon, he has been posting Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo numbers whilst in Portugal. If he were to score half the goals at The Emirates as he has in green and white over the last two seasons, he is still going to score more than Arsenal’s top goal scorer by some distance. Given how Amorim likes to play and the system that he utilises, Sesko is the better fit and with over 200 appearances already at the age of 22, he is ready to take the next step in his career. A career that has seen a gradual improvement whilst maintaining a consistent goal scoring record.