Manchester United will have a clear run at signing Chelsea forward Christopher Nkunku if they match the fee the Blues paid to sign him from RB Leipzig.
Reports linking the Frenchman with a move to Old Trafford are gathering pace, and now it is claimed by The Telegraph that as long as United pay £52m to ensure Chelsea break even, they can have their man.
The newspaper claimed that Chelsea would listen to offers for their top scorer, whose contract still has four years left to run, “if they can recoup their transfer fee in full.”
United are credited with an existing interest in the former Leipzig man from Erik ten Hag’s days in charge, and the Telegraph added, “It remains to be seen whether it will be revived under their new head coach Ruben Amorim.”
But given Chelsea’s abundance of attacking talent and the player’s reported desire to leave in search of more game time, it certainly sounds like Nkunku is there for the taking, albeit for probably a higher price than United would want to pay.
After an injury-ravaged first season in England, the Frenchman has fallen foul of Chelsea’s intriguing squad setup, featuring most heavily in cup competitions in what many view as Enzo Maresca’s B-team.
He has impressed this season, netting 10 goals in 17 matches, but these performances haven’t translated into many Premier League opportunities.
The forward has made just one start in the league so far, having to make do with second-half substitute appearances since the opening day, including just a two-minute cameo against Arsenal at the weekend.
Chelsea’s squad is notoriously bloated and nowhere more so than in attack, where Nkunku is up against Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, João Félix, United loanee Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto.
The Telegraph quote Maresca as perplexingly calling Nkunku “probably our best player in pre-season”, with the Italian continuing to explain that he is now deploying the forward in a different role.
It is thought that Amorim will have some money to spend in January, and it seems that a deal for Nkunku is achievable.
But that said, United’s new boss has a huge task on his hands if he wants to shape the squad to best fit his preferred 3-4-3 formation, and is surely more likely to pursue effective wing-backs rather than another forward.
Feature image Mike Hewitt via Getty Images
Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
