Manchester United spent huge, round £207m to be precise, recruiting a brand-new entrance three this summer time, so how are they getting on?
Effectively, Bryan Mbeumo scored towards each Grimsby City and Burnley in August, albeit his missed penalty that determined the EFL Cup tie at Blundell Park is what’s going to stay longest within the reminiscence.
Meantime, Benjamin Šeško has scored within the final two matches, opening his account at Brentford earlier than bagging his first at Outdated Trafford throughout Saturday’s victory over Sunderland.
Thus, Matheus Cunha is the one member of the trio but to attain this season, though the Purple Devils’ subsequent fixture, an away sport towards Liverpool at Anfield, can be time to alter that reality.
Elsewhere, the phenomenon of gamers leaving Manchester United and thriving elsewhere is nothing new, however even a ahead described because the “worst participant” within the membership’s total historical past is outscoring the Šeško, Mbeumo and Cunha trident up to now this season.
Man United alumni lighting it up elsewhere
As a society we have all grow to be accustomed to the thought of gamers revitalising their careers by leaving Outdated Trafford.
Scott McTominay is the prime instance of this, scoring 13 targets for Napoli final season, the important thing man because the Partenopei received solely their fourth Scudetto, named Serie A’s participant of the yr.
This summer time, the Scotland worldwide has been joined by Rasmus Højlund at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona who, after solely scoring 4 Premier League targets all through the whole lot of final season, has bagged 4 in simply six video games for Napoli, notching a Champions League brace towards Sporting, earlier than bagging the winner towards Genoa final Sunday.
Elsewhere, after scoring 9 occasions throughout his brief mortgage spell, Antony made his transfer to Actual Betis everlasting on deadline day, bagging his first of the season as los Verdiblancos held Nottingham Forest to a 2-2 draw on the Cartuja within the Europa League.
The Brazilian scored simply 12 occasions in 96 appearances for the Purple Devils, however has ten in 31 for Betis.
There are numerous different gamers we may have cited for whom leaving Manchester United was the perfect profession choice they’ve ever made, however one specifically, you will have utterly forgotten about, remains to be scoring at a excessive degree on the age of 33.
Manchester United’s worst-ever attacker is now thriving
Let’s all enter our metaphorical DeLoreans and time journey again to November 2022.
The World Cup is about to start in Qatar whereas, and this feels unthinkable now, Manchester United underneath Erik ten Hag have been in a title race, occurring to complete third that season with 75 factors. For comparability, their 58 most up-to-date Premier League matches have yielded simply 68 factors.
Nevertheless, all was not properly as a result of, having been sidelined by Ten Hag, Cristiano Ronaldo made it clear that he felt “betrayed” and would go away the membership “with rapid impact”.
Thus, within the January switch window, the Purple Devils desperately wanted a brand new striker, however the Glazers stated they merely didn’t have the funds out there to make a everlasting signing.
So, a artistic resolution was discovered, with Man United paying a reported price of £2.6m to finish Wout Weghorst’s mortgage transfer from Burnley to Beşiktaş and convey him to Outdated Trafford as a substitute.
The Netherlands worldwide had scored 9 occasions in simply 18 appearances for the İstanbul-based giants, however didn’t actually deliver that kind to England, scoring solely twice for United, on the right track towards Nottingham Forest within the EFL Cup and Actual Betis within the Europa League.
Thus, onlookers weren’t impressed, with Jamie Redknapp, talking on Sky Sports activities, describing him as merely “not ok”, whereas Richard Keys asserted that he’s the ‘worst participant I’ve ever seen in a [Manchester] United jersey’.
After lastly leaving Burnley, Weghorst returned to the Netherlands by becoming a member of Ajax in August 2024.
He scored 11 targets throughout his first season in Amsterdam, whereas he has began the brand new Eredivisie season on hearth, netting 5 occasions already, together with a brace towards Sparta Rotterdam at Het Kasteel on Saturday.
This implies, thus far, he has scored extra targets than Mbeumo, Cunha and Šeško mixed to start out the brand new marketing campaign.
Does this imply Manchester United ought to have stored maintain of Weghorst?
Effectively, in all probability not no, however it’s additional proof that the curse of gamers leaving the membership and thriving elsewhere is actual.
