Man Utd turned down by former Chelsea flop as INEOS were ready to ‘go to the limit’
Manchester United were “ready to go to the limit” to land a former Chelsea flop who turned them down in favour of returning to his old club.
United didn’t sign a new forward this summer. They put most of their efforts in the window into the midfield, landing Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba.
Some pundits have suggested that the Red Devils should have strengthened up top.
However, their failure to recruit in the final third was not for the want of trying.
Indeed, BILD reports United and Newcastle were both interested in signing former Chelsea striker Christopher Nkunku, who ended up leaving AC Milan after just a year to return to former side RB Leipzig.
The outlet states he ‘turned down’ both the Premier League clubs in order to head back to the Bundesliga club, and he ‘only wanted’ to go there.
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Man Utd would have pushed hard for Christopher Nkunku
They cite Leipzig’s sporting director Marcel Schafer, who suggests the interested clubs were going to go very hard for Nkunku.
Schafer said: “The transfer wouldn’t have happened without Christo’s steadfastness. Two Premier League clubs were prepared to go to the limit – we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”
It is not clear how much United would have been willing to pay for Nkunku, but he has a €28million (£24m) purchase option in his loan from Milan to Leipzig.
Nkunku assisted on his first appearance of his second spell at Leipzig, in a 3-0 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach.
The club are evidently happy with having him back, as Schafer said: “It was personally very important to me that we bring in someone with impeccable character, someone who displays an incredible hunger to prove himself to everyone again. And off the pitch, we also need a role model that the young players can look up to.”
United, meanwhile, have scored seven goals in their last two games, with forwards Bryan Mbeumo (2) and Benjamin Sesko responsible for three of those.
