Man Utd ‘agreed’ to sign £55m Tottenham target in the summer but transfer collapsed for two reasons
According to reports, Manchester United reached an ‘agreement’ over signing Antoine Semenyo in the summer amid ‘interest’ from Tottenham Hotspur.
In the summer, Man Utd‘s first focus was on overhauling their attack and they invested around £200m to sign Benjamin Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha.
United made this a priority as they were toothless in attack last season and Semenyo was mentioned as a potential alternative before they settled on Mbeumo and Cunha as their preferred No.10 targets.
25-year-old Semenyo enjoyed a breakout season for Bournemouth in 2024/25, grabbing eleven goals and five assists in the Premier League.
Semenyo has also sparkled at the start of this campaign and has three goal involvements in three matches, though journalist Duncan Castles claims he came close to joining Man Utd in the summer.
“Antoine Semenyo at Bournemouth, we can tell you, was aggressively targeted by Man Utd, starting back in March,” Castles said on The Transfers podcast.
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“Both Omar Berrada and Jason Wilcox had direct conversations with Bournemouth about signing the forward, who had scored 11 goals last season.
“During those conversations, United, I’m told, said they would pay no more than £55m for the player.
“They used the same strategy as with Cunha and Mbeumo in that they agreed personal terms with Semenyo before attempting to agree a fee with Bournemouth.
“They even had Amorim take him for a meal in London at the end of the season, so that Amorim could judge his character. Again, similar as to Cunha and Mbeumo.”
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Castles has also suggested that issues relating to the fee and salary for Semenyo were behind Man Utd’s failure to land the talented attacker.
“Tottenham were also interested in signing the player, and Bournemouth used that to insist on a higher transfer fee and, after the Cunha deal, used that as a precedent on what they expected the transfer fee to at least meet.
“And then, I’m told, Semenyo discovered that the salary he had agreed with Man Utd was going to be less than 70 per cent of what they were prepared to pay Cunha and Mbeumo.
“Bournemouth strategically used that to convince the player to sign a new contract until 2030, with the idea that he will spend at least one more season at Bournemouth before moving on to another club.
“Guidance from Man Utd is that they saw Semenyo as an alternative to either Cunha or Mbeumo, but Bournemouth believe that they were prepared to do all three of those deals.”
