Benjamin Sesko can be mentioned in the same breath as Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney. That is more pressure for one of Man United’s most expensive signings.
Samuel joined the Manchester Evening News in 2014 and is the Chief Manchester United writer. He has broken exclusives on Jose Mourinho’s appointment, the re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking, the club’s interest in Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag, as well as numerous other transfers and team news. He has represented the MEN on the BBC, Sky News, Sky Sports News, TalkSport, Radio 5 Live, CNN and various other media outlets worldwide.
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Sesko has scored 27 Bundesliga goals in 64 games
Benjamin Sesko hid from photographers at Manchester Airport on Thursday night. There is no hiding place for a Manchester United striker.
Never mind one who has cost £73.7million. Sesko is a strapping presence yet he may have to beef up his frame just to shoulder the burden of leading the line for United.
Sesko was born in 2003, played in Austria and has been operating in one of Europe’s top five leagues for budding Champions League qualifiers. Just like Rasmus Hojlund.
So the minimum target for Sesko this season is 16 goals, the number Hojlund tallied in his respectable first campaign in England. Hojlun’s overall numbers are cause to look away: 26 goals in 95 United appearances.
Hojlund was always destined to fail. Switching to the same agency that represented Erik ten Hag marked his card with some teammates.
One United player shook their head at the mention of Hojlund. Another lamented how few tackles he won, his lack of pressing and aerial sickness. A senior figure at the club questioned Hojlund’s work rate.
Alejandro Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot have all given him short shrift on the pitch. Players were genuinely reluctant to pass the ball to Hojlund in his first season amid reservations about his hold-up play.
In pre-season alone, Hojlund has vented at Dalot over a purportedly delayed pass. In Atlanta, he kicked the post after Patrick Dorgu kicked at goal.
It is ironic that John Murtough is now employed by Atalanta, having agreed an overall £72m deal with them to sign Hojlund in 2023. Since that transfer, Atalanta have won the Europa League, with Ademola Lookman scoring a hat-trick in the Dublin final against Bayer Leverkusen, and Mateo Retegui was the top scorer in Serie A last season.
Hojlund mustered three goals in his last 35 United games. This is what United can do to a £70m-odd striker.
Hojlund has been weighed down by expectation at United
“I’m still very young,” the 22-year-old Hojlund protested last week. “I think people forget that sometimes. I’m only 22. Obviously, not every striker is scoring 100 goals in the age of 22. But I’ve learned a lot, I think you can see in my game.”
What Hojlund was essentially saying was that not everyone is like Erling Haaland in their early 20s. Haaland, like Sesko, cut his teeth at Red Bull Salzburg before rejecting United to move to the Bundesliga.
“Competition is fine with me,” Hojlund assured us in the Soldier Field mixed zone, “it sharpens me. I’m more than ready. I’m feeling sharp so I’m welcoming everything that comes. I think it’s good with competition and it only sharpens the team.”
Hojlund insisted “my plan is very clear and that is for me to stay and fight for my spot, whatever happens”. Some of those close to him think differently.
Hojlund insisted last week he wants to stay
Sesko is a different profile to Hojlund. He was more renowned as a teenager and United tried to sign him three years ago when he was 19. Murtough met Sesko’s agent, Elvis Basanovic.
United valued Sesko at £15m. Salzburg wanted £30m. Three years later, United have paid more than double. His fee is just shy of the £75m United parted with for Romelu Lukaku, their last Premier League-proven striker signing, in 2017.
After Sesko joined RB Leipzig, it was telling that United still opened the doors to Basanovic at Carrington and Old Trafford, rather than burn their bridges. Keeping the line of dialogue open led to Matt Hargreaves greeting Basanovic and Sesko on the Manchester Airport tarmac.
Sesko will likely line up for United for the first time against a club that was tipped to sign him. Arsenal will instead have Viktor Gyokeres at the apex of their attack. United enquired about Gyokeres before they turned to Sesko.
Amorim and Gyokeres enjoyed success together at Sporting CP
That is another reality Sesko will have to blank out. Gyokeres, Liam Delap and Ollie Watkins were all sounded out before him. £73.7m is a steep fee for a fourth-choice striker. Delap cost £30m, Gyokeres went for a fee rising to £64m. There is no way Watkins would have commanded as much as Sesko has.
Leipzig finished seventh last season. The only scrutiny on the reviled Red Bull franchise in Germany centres around their manufactured origins. They are a franchise club, anathema to the traditions of Germany’s historic clubs. United is the most scrutinised sporting institution on the planet.
Sesko at Manchester Airport(Image: Eamonn and James Clarke)
As if this all wasn’t onerous enough for Sesko, there is something he almost certainly hasn’t considered. In my lifetime, there have been two forwards United and Newcastle United have vied for: Alan Shearer in 1996 and Wayne Rooney in 2004.
That’s the highest goalscorer and the third-highest goalscorer in the Premier League era. 468 goals between them. The leading scorers of Newcastle and United. They are English football greats not of the past 33 years but its entire history.
That Sesko is mentioned in the same breath as them seems incongruous but it is fair. If he is mentioned in the same breath as them again in a different context, he will have been as totemic a buy as Fernandes.
There is no hiding place.
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