Man United need to sign a new striker in the summer transfer window and they are closing in on Benjamin Sesko.
Steven is a senior writer and covers Manchester United for the Manchester Evening News. You can follow Steven on Twitter at @StevenRailston.
Sesko is not a risk-free signing.(Image: 2024 Visionhaus)
Manchester United are closing in on a young striker for a fee in excess of £70million for the second time in two years.
Rasmus Hojlund did not arrive with Premier League experience and his time at Old Trafford has not gone as hoped. There is also no guarantee that Benjamin Sesko will succeed in England.
United are rolling the dice with Sesko after Aston Villa reiterated Ollie Watkins was not for sale this summer. Watkins would have been a similar signing to Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, who are both established Premier League players, but talks are advancing with RB Leipzig over a move for Sesko.
United have bid €75million (£65.3m) plus €10m (£8.7) in add-ons in an attempt to sign Sesko. Newcastle have offered a more lucrative package to Leipzig, but the player’s preference is set to be decisive.
The expectation is that United and Leipzig will agree on a slightly higher fee than the initial bid.
Fans who have been season-ticket holders at Old Trafford for years will wonder how paying such a significant fee for a raw striker is now considered normal, but the modern market is grossly inflated.
United will essentially pay the going rate for one of the most promising young forwards in Europe, but they are investing in potential and Hojlund is an example of the danger of those deals.
Watkins would have been a safer bet at a time when Ruben Amorim can not afford to take risks. Watkins has scored 75 goals in 184 appearances in the Premier League and demonstrated his quality with England at Euro 2024.
There would have been a higher chance of Watkins hitting the ground running at United, but that point is redundant when Aston Villa always seemed destined to say he wasn’t for sale.
In comparison, Sesko had earmarked this summer for a move away from Leipzig and Arsenal were the front-runners to sign him at the start of the window. Arsenal opted to sign Viktor Gyökeres from Sporting Lisbon instead, which opened the door for United and Newcastle to battle it out for Sesko.
It doesn’t make much sense to harp on about Watkins being more suited to a transfer to United than Sesko because one player wasn’t for sale, and the other player was up for grabs.
Sesko is close to a move to United.(Image: Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images.)
Having said that, concerns can be voiced about Sesko’s move. He is younger than Hojlund and will need time to adapt in the Premier League. Will history repeat itself and the pressure of leading the attack become a burden on Sesko’s shoulders? It’s possible his time at United will be similar to Hojlund’s.
On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that Sesko is better equipped to succeed at Old Trafford and makes an immediate impact, scoring goals and providing presence in the opposition box.
Amorim will desperately hope it’s the latter. United’s head coach needs a dependable goalscorer and Sesko should be targeting 15 goals in his first season.
Christopher Vivell has been crucial in the proposed deal for Sesko, to the extent that Sesko will feel like a ‘Vivell signing’. United’s director of recruitment oversaw the signing of Sesko during his stint at Leipzig and holds him in high regard.
And when Leipzig signed Sesko in the summer of 2022, Vivell said: “Sesko is among the top international talents and has enormous potential to become a top player as well. He has everything it takes, is extremely fast, has tremendous jumping ability, and is very strong in the air.”
Vivell believes Sesko can develop into one of the world’s best strikers, but United sources said the same when Hojlund arrived from Atalanta in a deal worth £72million two years ago.
It will be a disaster if Sesko isn’t a success in Manchester, given that his profile is similar to Hojlund’s, albeit he has shown more than Hojlund did before his move to United.
Sesko has 39 goals in 87 appearances for RB Leipzig and his record for Slovenia (16 goals in 41 games) is encouraging. Sesko was a livewire at Euro 2024 and his explosiveness will help him in the Premier League.
The 22-year-old could prove to be an outstanding signing if he continues to develop in the next few seasons. Sesko obviously comes with risk but there is plenty of potential there.
Every United fan will be hoping lightning does not strike twice.