Erik ten Hag wants to bolster his attacking options after Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Manchester United.
As is the club's custom, Manchester United is more likely to recruit a striker on a loan rather than a permanent contract in the January transfer window.
The revelation comes after Cody Gakpo, a Dutch forward, was under consideration by Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag as a potential replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo, who left United after the World Cup, and Liverpool secured a deal with PSV to purchase him for an initial £37 million next month.
According to reports, one strategy United considered for Gakpo was paying for a loan and promising to buy the player outright in the summer. However, PSV did not find this strategy as appealing as they did Liverpool's offer to acquire Gakpo completely. Due to Ronaldo's departure, United have saved almost £10 million in salary that would have gone on hiring a forward for Ten Hag. But because the club's owners, the Glazers, have given notice that it is for sale if a good bid is received, funding for any new signings remains extremely constrained.
Gakpo's potential £50 million price tag may have been acceptable to United, but the team failed to make a concrete offer for the 23-year-old, allowing Liverpool to rapidly approach him for a transfer. United has only scored 20 goals in the Premier League, so Ten Hag has to bolster his team with a reliable goal scorer. With four goals, Marcus Rashford leads the team in scoring.
Any new addition is anticipated to be transitory rather than a significant long-term deal, given the club is satisfied with the £230m it spent last summer. Ten Hag and John Murtough, United's football director, are still evaluating striking prospects for potential recruitment in the winter window.
The United boss was quoted as saying following Tuesday's 3-0 victory against Nottingham Forest: "I think we are constantly in the market but it needs to satisfy the sporting requirements and also the financial criteria."
As the Portuguese forward seems dissatisfied at Atlético Madrid, Joo Félix is one name that United would have been interested in, but even his loan cost is probably too expensive during this window. Marko Arnautovic, the Bologna forward who Ten Hag evaluated in the summer, has been almost eliminated from the club's future transfer plans.
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