\t\t\t2<\/i><\/p>\n
Manchester United need another striker to ease the burden on Benjamin Sesko\u2019s young shoulders.<\/p>\n
The Slovenian is currently recovering from an injury he sustained towards the fag-end of last season, as a result of which Joshua Zirkzee has been afforded the chance to start as the No.9 in both pre-season games so far.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman did score a splendid goal against Rosenborg last week, and his link-up play is among the best in the squad, but he is not a ruthless finisher.<\/p>\n
That is what Michael Carrick needs ahead of United\u2019s return to the Champions League, and INEOS are keen to rectify that.<\/p>\n
Joshua Zirkzee out, new striker in<\/h5>\n
They are open to moving the Netherlands international on and want to replace him with an experienced striker.<\/p>\n
Former United hero Danny Welbeck was the preferred choice, but the Englishman is heading to Chelsea instead.<\/p>\n
Dusan Vlahovic has emerged as a surprise option, but the Serbian has multiple suitors chasing his signature, while his wage demands are also substantial.<\/p>\n
It is well known by now that United\u2019s co-owners prefer Premier League-proven options, which led the club to Aston Villa\u2019s Ollie Watkins.<\/p>\n
Ollie Watkins is one to watch out for<\/h5>\n
There were reports that Unai Emery\u2019s side were open to the Englishman\u2019s sale for \u00a340 million, but i Paper have rubbished those claims.<\/p>\n
They have claimed that even if the team from Birmingham sell the England international, he is likely to cost more than what the 20-time English league champions can afford.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Joshua Zirkzee does leave, one source added United could look for an experienced striker to come in on a short-term basis, similar to the role Wout Weghorst fulfilled during his loan spell a few years ago.<\/p>\n
Villa will demand a substantial fee<\/h5>\n
\u201cOllie Watkins is another striker United have been monitoring for a while, though Aston Villa are unlikely to sell for anything like the sort of fee the Red Devils would be willing to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old has a contract at Villa Park until 2028, and last season, he netted 21 times in all competitions. It makes sense for Villa to value him higher than the reported \u00a340 million.<\/p>\n
Feature image Richard Heathcote via Getty Images<\/em><\/p>\n The Peoples Person has been one of the world\u2019s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2 Manchester United need another striker to ease the burden on Benjamin Sesko\u2019s young shoulders….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thepeoplesperson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/affiliate-christmas-campaign-25-1500x300-en-uk-min.png\")
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