Potential striker signings (who aren't named Højlund)

[SirScholes]

Greenwood is going to be our long time striker,Martial is not bad and Rashford can play there as well
We need a creative Midfielder- Grealish and a top class quick defender and we should be able to challenge properly next season

I don’t think martial or rashford can play as a striker against 80% of the league
We need actual strikers, who offer movement in the box, following up shots, running to the near post, all that should be bread and butter but you never see those guys doing it

 

[Matt851]

Greenwood is going to be our long time striker,Martial is not bad and Rashford can play there as well
We need a creative Midfielder- Grealish and a top class quick defender and we should be able to challenge properly next season

Greenwood has given pretty much zero indication he is upto playing up front for a top level side as yet so would be risky to pin our hopes on him

Many players who played cf for youth teams turn out to be better wide forwards and think that might be the case with greenwood

 

[troylocker]

I totally agree with this but I think what is also important is that we don’t let the next generation of top players go to the likes of Dortmund without putting up a much better fight. We can’t afford to be paying them 100 million for players after a few seasons in an easier league, it’s not sustainable, especially we’ve seen massive transfers flop all over the place in the past few years. There’s nothing stopping us loaning similar players to the BL clubs in the champions league for a season or 2 if that’s what everyone agrees on. Who’s to say Dortmund wouldn’t take them off us? They like a loan (Renier, Hakimi etc) and can still offer plenty of football. The likes of Bellingham Sancho and Haaland would have played plenty here from the season they signed though. Dortmund have a great setup to be fair to them but there’s no reason they should be consistently beating us to top young players if we are selling ourselves properly.

In an ideal world. Yes!

The problem is that Dortmund lets their own 17 year old talents be regular starters at the cost of their end product, their loanies won't get the same trust and must deliver (like Hakimi) to get the minutes. Reinier is wasting a very important year of development there. They are fine with letting Bayern be #1 and just getting out of their group in the CL every year. They are pretty much the perfect stepping stone club for the elite talents they own as long as the end top 4 in the league every year. The Haalands, Sanchos, Reynas and Bellinghams etc. are thrown in to the pool at the deep end and given time to learn how to swim. We're not doing that because we demand titles and immediate results along the way, and that does not mix with giving youngster plenty of minutes without loads of pressure on their shoulders. Unless we can live with not fielding our best eleven against top opposition regularly to give youngsters valuable education, we won't have the same drag on the top talents. Not every supertalent will hit the ground running like Haaland and Sancho did, and we wouldn't give them enough time to get there the fastest way if they don't. The elite talents needs to know their talent is being nurtured the best possible way. As an example; do you think Greenwood would develop faster if we gave him 60-90 minutes every game despite him not delivering the goods? It not just us though. Would Foden be even better than he is now if Pep didn't give every title a shot and played him more earlier? Delap? I think so. To be a titlepushing club and a great place for youngsters to grow at the same time is a very hard combo. I would love for us to give the youngster more minutes, but that would give us less points in this league, and U23 is not the place for the elite talents to grow. I hope we get better at finding attractive loan destinations for our best youngsters...

If I was Haaland I would easily take the the same route, knowing that my talent gets the best possible treatment and that my dream destination and career is even more realistic when I am patient and take it one step at the time.

 

[Siorac]

Yeah, I'm with those who believe there's no point in spending big money on a striker who isn't Haaland. No one else who is available is remotely exciting. A free transfer like Cavani if the man himself can't be persuaded to stay another year would be OK but otherwise let's focus on areas where we can get the best available player.

That is, of course, if we believe we have a chance of getting Haaland eventually. Which I personally don't but not even trying would be criminal nevertheless. Besides, even if we have zero chance of getting him, there's really no one out there. The striker position is a wasteland these days.

 

[mitchmouse]

Maybe if we spell it Harland, we can get away with it but OK Lewandowski ha ha. Have to agree with those saying Rashford and Martial are not good enough to be United's NO. 9. there all round play is not good enough consistently enough.

Did have hopes for Mason but he looks really lost at the moment. Don't suppose we could persuade Aguero to cross Manchester...

 

[troylocker]

All of these would be an upgrade for us.

Kane
Mbappe
DCL
Isak
Poulsen
Abraham
M. Dembele
Martinez

Kane - yes for 150M, and will never happen.
Mbappe - yes for 150M and will never happen.
DCL - No
Isak - Maybe, but no sure thing.
Poulsen - No!
Abraham - No.
M Dembele - No.
Martinez - Maybe - for 100M and no sure thing.

DCL, Poulsen, Abraham, Dembele would instantly block any opportunity of becoming a title winning team anytime soon. Poulsen for us would be like Braithwaite for Barca....
Isak is the most interesting prospect there, but not close to the Haaland tier.

Signing any of these would make it 100% certain that we wouldn't sign Haaland.

 

[SirScholes]

I don’t understand the “if we don’t sign haarland then we should sign no one”
What if he never signs for us? Do we just not sign anyone ever?
If our scouts can’t find a striker that fits our system and can score more than our current options martial/Cavani then I’m very worried

 

[Siorac]

I don’t understand the “if we don’t sign haarland then we should sign no one”
What if he never signs for us? Do we just not sign anyone ever?
If our scouts can’t find a striker that fits our system and can score more than our current options martial/Cavani then I’m very worried

If he signs for someone else, then obviously we will have to sign a striker eventually. But if we believe we have a chance of getting him this summer or the next, then spending big on a striker would be stupid. We have other needs as well and we should focus on those.

If the club knows for certain that we have zero chance of getting Haaland either this summer or the next then sure. Though even in that case I'd say RW, DM, CB are all more pressing needs.

 

[El Zoido]

If we can’t get Haaland, then get a RW and Greenwood up top, alongside another temp/experienced striker for cover. Greenwood has got a ton of great attributes but I’d be concerned on relying on him and Martial to rotate the CF position right now.

 

[GledTheRed]

Suggestions of DCL are straight bonkers.

 

[BalanceUnAutreJoint]

Greenwood/Martial striker pair and buy a RW.

but I’d be concerned on relying on him and Martial to rotate the CF position right now.

Why is that? He's just one year younger than Haaland or Sancho. If there's a time to prove he can be reliable as a starter It's next season.

 

[UpWithRivers]

I don’t understand the “if we don’t sign haarland then we should sign no one”
What if he never signs for us? Do we just not sign anyone ever?
If our scouts can’t find a striker that fits our system and can score more than our current options martial/Cavani then I’m very worried

We sign someone next year or the year after when we find someone better than the options now.
Getting Sancho or getting DM + CM is a better option than getting Silva or Bamford or whoever is actually attainable i.e. not Kane, Haaland DCL etc

 

[troylocker]

I don’t understand the “if we don’t sign haarland then we should sign no one”
What if he never signs for us? Do we just not sign anyone ever?
If our scouts can’t find a striker that fits our system and can score more than our current options martial/Cavani then I’m very worried

We are talking about before Haaland makes his move from Dortmund. Untill then he should be our only striker target. If we don't get him then, we must of course look elsewhere for a striker.

 

[Tom Cato]

Whatever we do, I do not want a striker that has potential for 15 goals, or someone who has never gotten close to 20 in a different league. I want a striker that is going to feel let down by a 25 goal season.

So either we aquire the next big talent, or we roll out Sir Alex for Haaland. (Didnt do any good with Bellingham, to be fair)

 

[Matt851]

Greenwood/Martial striker pair and buy a RW.


Why is that? He's just one year younger than Haaland or Sancho. If there's a time to prove he can be reliable as a starter It's next season.

This seems highly risky if cavani leaves

How many goals has greenwood scored as a cf and how many times has he actually played well in that position? Martial on the other hand has been one of the worst strikers in the league this season, given his lack of goals, movement and effort

 

[laughtersassassin]

This seems highly risky if cavani leaves

How many goals has greenwood scored as a cf and how many times has he actually played well in that position? Martial on the other hand has been one of the worst strikers in the league this season, given his lack of goals, movement and effort

My thoughts too. Think we are better off going for a top striker

 

[Woodzy]

Whatever we do, I do not want a striker that has potential for 15 goals, or someone who has never gotten close to 20 in a different league. I want a striker that is going to feel let down by a 25 goal season.

So either we aquire the next big talent, or we roll out Sir Alex for Haaland. (Didnt do any good with Bellingham, to be fair)

I’m not sure what gives the impression that this is what it would take to convince him to join us.

If there is anyone at our club who can convince Haaland to join us then it is our own manager, but ultimately it’s much more likely to come down to who throws the most money around and who is looking the stronger team at the end of season.

 

[POF]

Kane would be fantastic. Experienced, a reliable goal scorer and an excellent link man.

He would be an ideal focal point of the attack with 2 of Rashford, Martial and Greenwood around him.

It's also time for him to move. He won't win anything significant at Spurs. Financially it would be a really difficult deal but it makes sense for a number of reasons.

 

[Leftback99]

We sold the best alternative. Backing Greenwood and Martial and buying a winger is probably a better option.

 

[The Irish Connection]

The other lad at Dortmund, behind Haaland, Moukoku.
Dortmund are actually in a good place if they sell Haaland.

 

[SirScholes]

We sign someone next year or the year after when we find someone better than the options now.
Getting Sancho or getting DM + CM is a better option than getting Silva or Bamford or whoever is actually attainable i.e. not Kane, Haaland DCL etc

Why wait until next year? Those players are around now surely, they don’t just materialise out of thin air.

 

[SirScholes]

Suggestions of DCL are straight bonkers.

Equally people saying we can win the league with Greenwood and martial as our lead strikers

 

[SirScholes]

If we can’t get Haaland, then get a RW and Greenwood up top, alongside another temp/experienced striker for cover. Greenwood has got a ton of great attributes but I’d be concerned on relying on him and Martial to rotate the CF position right now.

i think you pretty much agree with my post here
We’d sign a rw but the problem remains against 80% of the teams we play against, no genuine striker to move their defenders around inside of the box.
Our only threat would again be counter attacks

 

[Jericho]

Time to start giving Greenwood a consistent run of games up top. We can't just keep using him to plug the gaps. That's what we've been doing to Martial and Rashford and it's arguably somewhat f**ked up their development.

 

[Infra-red]

The other lad at Dortmund, behind Haaland, Moukoku.
Dortmund are actually in a good place if they sell Haaland.

Dortmund always seem to be in a good place, no matter who they sell.

Instead of spending 100s of millions on their players, we should be spending a few hundred grand persuading their scouts to join us!

 

[dinostar77]

Not looking forward to the CAF explosion when haaland signs for another team and not Utd. Though this thread was supposed to be a discussion on other striker options.

There are other strikers in the world other than Haaland and Mbappe. Rashford isnt the answer at no9, greenwood is still a teenager and developing his frame. Eventually he will be a no9.

We need a no9 who can holdup the ball, bring others into play, has some pace (though not most essential attribute) and guarentee 20 goals a season. There are strikers across the world either proven or with the potential to meet the requirements. Its whether any are suitable for our style of play, are affordable and obtainable and would like to come to play for utd.

 

[FrankDrebin]

There's got to be a few gems out there outside the obvious, shirley ?

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

Equally people saying we can win the league with Greenwood and martial as our lead strikers

City are winning the league with Brazilian Jesus, who isn't much better than either of those.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

Signing any of these would make it 100% certain that we wouldn't sign Haaland.

Isak can comfortably be moved to secondary striker depth even with Haaland. He'll get plenty of games and it goes with Ole's vision of having two players competing for every spot in the first team.

 

[dinostar77]

City are winning the league with Brazilian Jesus, who isn't much better than either of those.

Gabriel Jesus has been a major flop. Guardiola has a checkered transfer history.

 

[Bojan Djordjic]

Suggestions of DCL are straight bonkers.

Why? He’s one of the best young strikers around and offers movement and an aerial threat that none of our forwards beside the outgoing Cavani offers.

 

[Bojan Djordjic]

I don’t understand the “if we don’t sign haarland then we should sign no one”
What if he never signs for us? Do we just not sign anyone ever?
If our scouts can’t find a striker that fits our system and can score more than our current options martial/Cavani then I’m very worried

My own view would be if Haaland shows interest you throw everything at that transfer when available. However if he’s not available, there are just too many other priority areas for us such as DM, RW and centre back and maybe even GK.

 

[Tallis]

Suggestions of DCL are straight bonkers.

Thanks for pointing out - I felt like I was missing something

 

[Harold_Giles]

Why? He’s one of the best young strikers around and offers movement and an aerial threat that none of our forwards beside the outgoing Cavani offers.

I'm guessing it's because Everton would probably demand at least 80m for him. He'd be a top signing though.

Ollie Watkins might be an interesting one. He moved to Villa only last summer for 30m, so he would probably cost quite a lot more than his true value.
Always seems threatening - good pace and movement, hard worker too. His finishing is often frustrating though.
He wouldn't win us any titles single-handedly, but if attainable for around 40m he'd be a good squad player.

 

[Matt851]

Gabriel Jesus has been a major flop. Guardiola has a checkered transfer history.

Most of their best performances haven't featured Jesus or any striker

I can't see that as being something we could recreate without signing another two technically gifted midfielders and a new right back, or at all under ole

We do need a striker if Cavani leaves, wonder if there is good RW out there who can also play up front

 

[Ali Dia]

In an ideal world. Yes!

The problem is that Dortmund lets their own 17 year old talents be regular starters at the cost of their end product, their loanies won't get the same trust and must deliver (like Hakimi) to get the minutes. Reinier is wasting a very important year of development there. They are fine with letting Bayern be #1 and just getting out of their group in the CL every year. They are pretty much the perfect stepping stone club for the elite talents they own as long as the end top 4 in the league every year. The Haalands, Sanchos, Reynas and Bellinghams etc. are thrown in to the pool at the deep end and given time to learn how to swim. We're not doing that because we demand titles and immediate results along the way, and that does not mix with giving youngster plenty of minutes without loads of pressure on their shoulders. Unless we can live with not fielding our best eleven against top opposition regularly to give youngsters valuable education, we won't have the same drag on the top talents. Not every supertalent will hit the ground running like Haaland and Sancho did, and we wouldn't give them enough time to get there the fastest way if they don't. The elite talents needs to know their talent is being nurtured the best possible way. As an example; do you think Greenwood would develop faster if we gave him 60-90 minutes every game despite him not delivering the goods? It not just us though. Would Foden be even better than he is now if Pep didn't give every title a shot and played him more earlier? Delap? I think so. To be a titlepushing club and a great place for youngsters to grow at the same time is a very hard combo. I would love for us to give the youngster more minutes, but that would give us less points in this league, and U23 is not the place for the elite talents to grow. I hope we get better at finding attractive loan destinations for our best youngsters...

If I was Haaland I would easily take the the same route, knowing that my talent gets the best possible treatment and that my dream destination and career is even more realistic when I am patient and take it one step at the time.

Great reply and I can’t disagree with anything there. I think it’s still about finding a happy medium and selling ourselves better. I’m assuming that having a DOF and a manager who is youth oriented should be a big plus but we should also be able to find better loans for these lads. Changing the culture hopefully means giving those stand out 18/19 year olds plenty of football and not having a Sanchez or a Lukaku who don’t even want to be here in their way. We haven’t had a really top prospect out on loan in a long time at all have we? If we’d signed Gomes up again and let him go that would have been the first since maybe Rossi and Pique (unless you want to count Evans Welbeck and TC23) who had a big reputation outside of the club and were tipped to make it at the top of the game. Gomez by all accounts left because we wouldn’t loan him or play him in his final year. We need to stop that from happening. The likes of Puigmal should have been out on loan at least once before he was allowed leave. I don’t think loaning to other PL clubs is the answer nowadays either. It’s too much money and pressure so loanees run the risk of being ignored especially if the manager who took them on is fired mid season.

you’re right it’s very hard to compete with Dortmund when it comes to giving almost unconditional minutes but even Bayern are hoovering up similar talents and their squad is stacked. You have to find a way when the player is special unless you want to be giving Dortmund 100 million every 2 or 3 years. If we had a link with a smaller club who plays in the CL, similar league level to RBS and loaned out our 2 best lads to them every season something like that could end up saving us a packet. Could we link up with VDS at Ajax even? We need to start getting a bit more creative anyway whatever we end up doing. The old sales pitch of we are the best and you’d be mad to chose another club probably doesn’t wash these days when that’s what you’re up against.

 

[P-Nut]

The options are likely

Andre Silva - He's the one I've seen us linked to the most, but I'm not sold personally
DCL - Good player, but would cost just as much as Haaland for a much inferior player.
Depay - Strikes me as a similar issue to Martial if we're looking for an out and out striker similar to Cavani.
Ronaldo - Package needed to sign him would be astronomical
Isak - Young player with potential isn't what we need at the moment I'd say, we've got plenty of potential already in the club.

All in all they all have negative points about them, which is to be expected when you're comparing to Haaland. Just a look across the top goalscorers around Europe tells you it's going to be a massive drop off from him.

 

[Giggsy13]

The options are likely

Andre Silva - He's the one I've seen us linked to the most, but I'm not sold personally
DCL - Good player, but would cost just as much as Haaland for a much inferior player.
Depay - Strikes me as a similar issue to Martial if we're looking for an out and out striker similar to Cavani.
Ronaldo - Package needed to sign him would be astronomical
Isak - Young player with potential isn't what we need at the moment I'd say, we've got plenty of potential already in the club.

All in all they all have negative points about them, which is to be expected when you're comparing to Haaland. Just a look across the top goalscorers around Europe tells you it's going to be a massive drop off from him.

Silva and Isak are smart choices. Ronaldo is intriguing, I’d take him here for a few years but I don’t think he’s interested in moving back. He’s all about adding to his legacy and a return to United where he’s won everything already won’t fit the bill. I think he goes to PSG or across the pond to Inter Miami where he could increase his profile in the US.

 

[Bwuk]

I don't think we will sign one if we don't get Haaland.

 

[Lemon Moon]

Kane - yes for 150M, and will never happen.
Mbappe - yes for 150M and will never happen.
DCL - No
Isak - Maybe, but no sure thing.
Poulsen - No!
Abraham - No.
M Dembele - No.
Martinez - Maybe - for 100M and no sure thing.

DCL, Poulsen, Abraham, Dembele would instantly block any opportunity of becoming a title winning team anytime soon. Poulsen for us would be like Braithwaite for Barca....
Isak is the most interesting prospect there, but not close to the Haaland tier.

Signing any of these would make it 100% certain that we wouldn't sign Haaland.

I agree with you on the price of Kane, Mbappe would probably be closer to 200m.

Haaland wouldn't be far off 150m either probably so if Kane & Mbappe 'will never happen' then by the same standards neither will Haaland?

I disagree with you on pretty much everything else;

Isak is virtually an unknown to me, but I have heard some good things recently, maybe others could elaborate if they consider him an option and why?

DCL is a fantastic striker in my opinion & has league experience.

Poulsen, Abraham and Dembele I think are all very good 'no. 9's' that all have different qualities to to our options at the moment (bar Cavani) in my opinion.

How would signing any of these lads 'instantly block any opportunity of becoming a title winning team anytime soon' ? Please explain yourself.

I agree with you completely with regards Martinez, all the strikers I named would likely cost an arm and a leg and out of them all, I feel the most unsure about him.