Manchester United brief over striker shortlist and transfer ‘process’ makes them look foolish yet again

Manchester United want everyone to know their striker transfer shortlist is down to Ollie Watkins and Benjamin Sesko, even if it makes them look stupid.

“In the last decade and in this period, we couldn’t always get the players we wanted,” Erik ten Hag told Gary Neville last May. “Then you have to build and you have to accept that you get talent in instead of players who have already proved it in the past.

“We have had some choices made with talents like Rasmus Hojlund,” he continued. “I can see a striker who already proved it, who we wanted to sign and we couldn’t get him. And then we went to Rasmus because he’s a talent.

“With Harry Kane you know you get 30 goals. I think Rasmus will get there but he needs time. It’s not fair to assess him the same as Harry Kane. I would never compare two players because they are very different.”

One year, a managerial change and sporting director departure later, Manchester United are back comparing “very different” strikers in terms of profile and style again.

Only at Old Trafford could the ‘narrowing’ of a transfer shortlist produce two targets at opposing ends of the broad centre-forward spectrum.

Only at Old Trafford could that development be briefed to the usual cabal of journalists like an underachieving child proudly showing their working-out for a sum they will inevitably get wrong.

Only at Old Trafford could history repeat itself in such a peculiar way.

In the claret and blue corner, the proven Premier League experience of a seasoned England international about to enter his 30s. In the Red Bull corner, the pure promise of a prodigious centre-forward who has never played in the Premier League by his early 20s.

And those are just the surface-level differences between the players Manchester United are choosing from to lead the line in this brave attacking restructure under Ruben Amorim.

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Watkins is a defence-stretching runner whose touches almost exclusively come within the confines of the penalty area and are reflected in his goal and assist output; Sesko drops deep to engage heavily in the build-up, dribbling and passing while generally taking his shots from much further away.

Yet only now, with August looming and Manchester United on their pre-season tour, are they ‘in the process of weighing up Watkins and Sesko for their contrasting styles, suitability to Ruben Amorim’s team, and financial outlay’.

That was one of the lines used by one of the writers blessed enough to be given access to Manchester United’s grand recruitment operation and it exposes the absurdity of a search which essentially amounts to consulting a formerly good website for their ideas on the best feasibly attainable strikers this summer, without an actual thought as to where and how they would fit for them specifically as a club.

But at least Manchester United had the self-awareness to rule out a move for Alexander Isak. Once his name and that of Nicolas Jackson was scribbled out along with that of Viktor Gyokeres and Liam Delap earlier in the summer, this bizarre battle between Watkins and Sesko became inevitable as the two strikers left standing with no similarities beyond their position.

It is not quite the same scenario the club faced with Hojlund and Kane in 2023. There was a chasm between those two players and it was reflected in the cost required to complete either deal. Manchester United also did well to rule out the latter early – then obviously dragged their heels over the former to the extent he was signed a week before the season started.

Watkins is a slightly younger – although still of a Ratcliffe rule-breaking age – and far less prolific Kane counterpart two years on, while Sesko is older and further ahead in his evolution than Hojlund was and probably ever will be.

There will be debates over resale value, high ceilings, acclimatisation periods, risk and experience versus potential.

It is a difficult choice but also not one a club with any degree of competence would leave itself to make. If Manchester United have whittled their possible answers down to either Watkins or Sesko, they have forgotten the question and just started naming strikers they know.