Carlos Baleba, not Benjamin Sesko, will make Man Utd a passable football team

While Benjamin Sesko might make Man Utd better, Carlos Baleba definitely would. It’s not too late for Ruben Amorim to put his foot down.

As Manchester United close in on their new striker, who may prove to be the answer to their goalscoring woes but has more than a whiff of the Rasmus Hojlunds about him, David Ornstein revealed on Wednesday night that ‘contact’ has been made over a signing which will raise genuine concern among rivals that Amorim may actually have a passable football team to work with next season.

While there can be no one missing piece to a puzzle which remains strewn across the living room floor, with a corner or two thought to have been eaten by the dog and others sucked up by the hoover, Carlos Baleba can be the centre-piece to bring the still disparate Manchester United together and grant supporters at least an idea of what a final image might look like.

We’ve already questioned United’s linear transfer strategy this summer – the logic in completing one signing before moving onto the next rather than multi-tasking, to the point where Sesko has missed pre-season and any other additions look unlikely to join before the start of the campaign – but also, why this order when the midfield problem was so glaringly apparent under Amorim last term, having predated him for well over a decade.

Ander Herrera, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Morgan Schneiderlin, Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Fred, Donny van de Beek, Christian Eriksen and Casemiro have been signed for a not-so-small fortune, with not one single person convinced Manuel Ugarte is any sort of answer for United as the latest in that string of frankly terrible signings to occupy one of the positions in their laughably unstable midfield pivot. If only they had used the Harry Maguire money on Declan Rice.

Amorim could have been describing almost any game last season as he reflected on their 0-0 draw with Leeds a couple of weeks ago.

“The gaps between our sectors was sometimes too big. We have a lack of pace, especially in the middle of the park and you can feel it is hard to win and bring the ball.”

Bruno Fernandes operated in one of the deeper midfield roles in that game and again in the 4-1 win over Bournemouth last week, and Sesko’s imminent arrival will see the captain take up that position in the best United XI, or at least the XI featuring all of United’s best players, with Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo playing ahead of him and off Sesko.

That’s currently unworkable role for him. We will have to endure/be treated to the same soft-centred Red Devils, laughably at risk of being counter-attacked upon so long as any of Casemiro, Ugarte or Kobbie Mainoo are forced to do the donkey work they’e either incapable of or unsuited to in order to provide Fernandes with the license to remain United’s creator-in-chief in that position.

Baleba has correctly been identified as one of very few players capable of granting him that freedom. The 20-year-old made 4.22 combined tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes in the Premier League last season, falling just short of Moises Caicedo (4.38), who made more in total than any midfielder other than Idrissa Gueye.

United will no doubt be encouraged by Caicedo’s excellent second season for Chelsea, with the attraction of signing midfielders who have stood out for Brighton further enhanced by their continued excellence following moves to European giants, with Alexis Mac Allister a second outstanding exponent of the value in raiding the Amex following his key role in securing Liverpool their second Premier League title.

United’s need for a dominant midfielder in no way makes their bid for a new striker unnecessary. No-one watching Hojlund toil last season will have any confidence in him being the No.9 who can score them 20+ goals per season.

READ MORE: Man Utd: ‘New Sesko negotiations’ ongoing as he ‘trains separately’ amid ‘not an easy deal’ claim

But we also think they could have muddled through without Sesko, using Cunha or Mbeumo as the central striker if need be, or just trusting they can provide enough of an uptick in creativity and quality in those inverted winger roles to bring either Hojlund or Joshua Zirkzee along for the ride with them.

Baleba arguably should have been their priority from the start of the transfer window, but absolutely should have been part of what will be a £200m spend from the destitute Manchester United by the time they get the Sesko deal is over the line.

We’ve heard the sell-to-buy nonsense with regard to United throughout the transfer window and that’s the party line once again. ‘Unless the Old Trafford side are able to secure a raft of lucrative sales, it is improbable they can afford big-money recruits up front and in the number six role,’ says Ornstein.

They will come close to their greatest-ever summer spend even without securing what we’ve been told all along were the necessary sales of members of the bomb squad, so we can’t be sure they don’t have an extra £90m lying around for Baleba.

But if he is indeed beyond them as things stand, it’s not too late to pull out of a move for another young, unproven striker to join the two United have already – whom the manager isn’t convinced by anyway, very reasonably preferring the experience and surety of Ollie Watkins – in favour of a midfielder who Fabrizio Romano reports Amorim quite rightly sees as the “perfect” foil for Fernandes, with the “intensity” required to make United a serious football team this season.