Manchester United have reportedly submitted an initial offer of €45 million to Lyon in an attempt to land highly-rated striker Moussa Dembele.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer doesn’t seem to be playing around as far as restructuring his squad is concerned. Manchester United have, according to Euro United, tabled an opening offer of €45 million for Moussa Dembele and are waiting to hear back from Lyon with respect to the bid.
Interestingly, the report comes days after Euro United claimed United were plotting a €45 million swoop for the French striker, who has gained quite a reputation in the transfer market. While the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool had expressed interest in the prior report, there is no mention of any other club in the current update.
Moussa Dembele has had an invariably long route towards achieving a credible status in European football. Starting out in the younger age levels at PSG, Dembele moved to Fulham, where he received his senior debut. But, it was his move to Celtic and his two season with the Scottish giants that grabbed everyone’s attention.
The French Under-21 international was snapped up by Lyon in the summer of 2018. In his first Ligue 1 campaign, Dembele has finished the season with 15 league goals to his name, the same as global icon Neymar and veteran striker Radamel Falcao. And the 22-year-old will likely be a perfect fit to Solskjaer’s ideas and footballing system.
The manager wants players with a credible work-rate and ability to contribute to the team throughout the player’s time on the pitch. Also, the move makes sense, with Romelu Lukaku tipped to leave United amid interest from Inter Milan, who are reported to be close to confirming Antonio Conte as their new manager.
While Dembele possesses a similar level of strength as Lukaku, the French striker is technically better than the Belgian, especially in terms of the first touch, something that the Manchester United forward has struggled with throughout his footballing career.
That the Frenchman has not gone more than 4 league games without a goal last season is also something that Solskjaer and his backroom staff will be looking towards, especially when compared to the bouts of inconsistencies experienced by Lukaku and Marcus Rashford.
One barrier that might rear its head is the fact that Lyon are set to be in the qualifiers for the UEFA Champions League group stage while Manchester United are pencilled in for the UEFA Europa League for the 2018-19 campaign.
€45 million seems ideal for a 22-year-old who is only starting to gain some wind in terms of his footballing pedigree. It will be interesting to see how Lyon respond to the offer and whether any of the other suitors come in with their own bids as well.
