Mbeumo and Cunha could be teammates next season
Mbeumo and Cunha could be teammates next season
Buying Premier League proven players hasn't been a priority for Manchester United in recent years.
United have tended to target foreign leagues in a bid to strengthen their squad, but there has been a notable shift during Ruben Amorim's first summer transfer window at the helm.
Matheus Cunha has already arrived from Wolves in a £62.5million deal, while there's hope Brentford star Bryan Mbeumo will soon join him at Old Trafford. Liam Delap was the club's primary transfer target after he hit 12 in his maiden Premier League campaign, though the Manchester City academy graduate opted for a move to Chelsea instead.
Whether some of the signings United have made in recent years from foreign leagues have struggled to adapt to the pressures that come with being a United player or the Premier League in general is up for debate. But there's no doubting the fact that targeting players who have shown themselves to be capable operators in the English top flight reduces the risk of more wasted money.
Having inexplicably made just one attacking signing last summer following a season where they finished with a minus goal difference, United are aiming to bolster their attacking options. In Signing Cunha and targeting Mbeumo, they could soon add two of last season's top Premier League marksmen to their squad.
Mbeumo finished the campaign with an impressive 20 league goals, while Cunha bagged 15 for a struggling Wolves side. The pair finished in the top 10 Premier League goalscorers last season, with Mbeumo the fourth-highest goalscorer and Cunha tied on eighth with Chelsea's Cole Palmer.
Should they get a deal for Mbeumo over the line, it would mark a real statement of intent from United.
In fact, only one English club has ever added two new players to their squad in a summer after said players finished in the top 10 Premier League goalscorers.
The only club to have done so was Tottenham back in the summer of 2001, when they brought Gustavo Poyet and Teddy Sheringham to White Hart Lane. The latter struck 15 goals for United in the 2000/01 season to finish as the league's sixth top goalscorer, with Poyet firing 11 for Chelsea before a £2.2m move across the capital.
Spurs almost repeated the feat in 2012 when signing Clint Dempsey and Emmanuel Adebayor, but the latter finished in the top 10 scorers the previous season while on loan at Spurs, he simply made his move permanent in the summer.
Poyet and Sheringham both hit double figures in the 2001/02 Premier League season having arrived at Spurs in the summer. If United sign Mbeumo and the former Brentford man and Cunha hit double figures in the league next season, United will be on their way to fixing their biggest problem.
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