Ten Hag ‘eyes’ £25m Benfica striker as Man Utd ‘make contact’ over January transfer

Will Ford
Ramos Benfica

Erik ten Hag is reportedly interested in signing Benfica striker Goncao Ramos, who was linked with a move to Newcastle in the summer.

Ramos, who scored eight goals in all competitions last season, has already reached that mark this term with four goals in Champions League qualifying and a further four in Liga Portugal.


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Nottingham Forest reportedly had a €30m bid turned down for the 21-year-old in the summer and Newcastle reportedly were ready to pay €40m before istead turning to Alexander Isak.

The Portuguese U21 international is thought to have a £100m release clause but is valued at £25m by Benfica, a fee United would not go above to secure his services.

Ten Hag was backed with over £200m in the summer and reports had suggested he would receive around £70m to continue his rebuild in January, which could stretch to £100m through potential player sales.

But a report on Monday claimed the United boss could have nothing to spend in January after the club spent nearly twice as much as planned in the summer.

The United chiefs felt under pressure to fund a late splurge following the embarrassing defeats to Brighton and Brentford at the start of the season.

United don’t play again until October 2 and Ten Hag revealed last week that he wanted to use that time to “improve structures” and consider transfer targets in the winter window.

He said: “We have many meetings — we have to improve the structures in and around the club,” Ten Hag said. “And we will also look to the window in January or next summer already.”

But owner Joel Glazer, chief executive Richard Arnold and John Murtough are said to be ‘focused firmly on summer 2023 as the next opportunity to significantly add to Ten Hag’s squad’.

But as The Sun claim in their report on Ramos, injuries to Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford have exposed United’s lack of options up front, meaing Ten Hag has an ‘urgent need’ for a new striker, which could promp the bosses into a January spend.