Joshua Zirkzee chats to Matheus Cunha at Carrington.
Manchester United need more options in attack.
Manchester United came flying out of the traps at the start of this summer's transfer window, confirming they had reached an agreement with Wolves to sign Matheus Cunha on June 1.
had identified the Brazilian international as one of their top targets ahead of the start of the window and wasted no time in triggering his £62.5million release clause. The deal was officially finalised 11 days later.
After finishing the 2024/25 campaign with a negative goal difference of -10, United have rightly prioritised attacking signings this summer. They scored just 44 league goals last term and that was simply not good enough.
Having got Cunha, who is primed to become a shoo-in in the left-sided No.10 berth, through the door nice and early, United immediately switched their focus to signing Brentford star .
Despite tabling two offers for the Cameroonian, the second of which was in excess of £60m, United are still yet to make a breakthrough. Negotiations remain ongoing and some supporters are becoming restless.
Overhauling the attack is a leading priority for United this summer. In addition to landing Cunha and attempting to extract Mbeumo from the Gtech Community Stadium, they also want to sign a centre-forward.
The elephant in the room is that United need to sell players this summer in order to bring in new faces. With mid-July approaching, they are yet to oversee a sale.
United want to offload Alejandro Garnacho, and Antony this summer, while there is also no guarantee either or Joshua Zirkzee will still be at the club come the end of the window.
and none of them have been involved in training at Carrington this week. Rashford has attended in the afternoons to do some individual training.
Marcus Rashford wants to leave Old Trafford. (Image: Alex Livesey/Getty Images.)
As natural wingers, the aforementioned quartet do not fit into Amorim's 3-4-2-1 system, meaning it is in United's best interests to sell them this summer and bank some much-needed cash. However, their current absences from the first-team squad means United are four bodies down.
Garnacho, despite being informed he can leave, was directly involved in 21 goals last season, scoring 11 and assisting ten. Rashford, prior to joining Aston Villa on loan in February, scored seven goals and provided three assists in the first half of the season.
United are quite right to try and sell Garnacho and Rashford this summer, likewise Sancho and Antony, who also both spent time away from Old Trafford on loan last season. However, with the four of them currently out of the picture and increasingly unlikely to revive their United careers should they not be offloaded, Amorim is light on attacking options.
Hojlund and Zirkzee got just 17 goals between them last term, highlighting the need for a centre-forward to be added to the ranks sooner rather than later.
Cunha, who scored 17 goals for Wolves last term, has added quality to United's attack, but it isn't enough. He needs to be joined by more new faces, but they are so far yet to appear.
With the clock ticking, United need to oversee some sales sooner rather than later. If they play their cards right, they could bank more than £140m for the four wantaway attackers, if they secure the prices they are looking for for each of them.
Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim is desperate for new signings. (Image: Manchester United/Manchester United.)
That, of course, is a far easier said than done task, and United still need to oversee a lot of improvements in the seller's market. However, if they can generate some much-needed funds by overseeing a crop of sales, they will be in a strong position to strengthen their attacking department in the way they dream of doing so.
After a flying start to the window, ongoing negotiations with Brentford has meant progress has slowed. However, there is still plenty of time left for them to make up for lost time.
Right now, though, there attack is looking even weaker than before.