Manchester United will now have to complete the rest of the season with two misfiring strikers after INEOS failed to strengthen in that department in January.
Joshua Zirkzee has four goals in 35 games since his summer move while Rasmus Hojlund has now not scored in 13 consecutive matches.
With Marcus Rashford sealing a loan move to Aston Villa, Ruben Amorim only has Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo as the remaining goalscoring options. Luckily, the Argentine still remained at the club despite a lot of interest.
INEOS failed with their deadline day attempts at agreeing a deal with Bayern Munich for Mathys Tel while loan moves for Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey and Christopher Nkunku of Chelsea also failed to materialise.
United lack elite goalscorers
The Red Devils are languishing in 13th place in the Premier League while they still remain alive in the FA Cup and Europa League and Amorim clearly needs a lot of help to fix this mess.
Such is the dire situation that the Portuguese could be forced to turn to 17-year-old prodigy Chido Obi to address the alarming lack of goals.
Initially, Amorim had wanted the club to go all out to try and sign his former Sporting Lisbon protege Viktor Gyokeres but the Portuguese giants would only allow the Swede to leave if someone activated his release clause of £83 million.
As per i News, INEOS did not have the PSR leeway to approach the deal but it could be a blessing in disguise with the 26-year-old set to be available for much less in the summer.
Gyokeres will become cheaper next summer
Sporting will be open to selling the Sweden international for closer to £60 million in the next transfer window and despite the presence of Bayern Munich and Arsenal in the race, the 20-time English league champions remain confident of landing their man.
“A January move for Swedish goal machine Viktor Gyokeres was considered, but Sporting were reluctant to sell mid-season. It would have taken a bid of £83m – the former Brighton and Coventry striker’s release clause – to bring him in now.
“By waiting until the summer, Sporting are understood to be willing to let Gyokeres go for closer to £60m.”
Gyokeres has 34 goals in 33 games this season while also registering seven assists. Such is his form that he registers a goal involvement every 66 minutes.
On paper, he is the perfect fit having worked with Amorim before, who in turn has managed to unleash his full potential. Hopefully, after letting the coach down now, INEOS can land him in the summer.
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
