If Manchester United move for Kane and Sancho they won't need Ighalo - Berbatov - 7M sport

If Manchester United move for Kane and Sancho they won't need Ighalo - Berbatov

The Nigerian has impressed since joining on loan from Shanghai Shenhua and the former Red Devils striker thinks it could be a good idea to retain him


Posted Saturday, April 04, 2020 by Goal.com

If Manchester United move for Kane and Sancho they won't need Ighalo - Berbatov

Dimitar Berbatov does not believe that Manchester United will need to extend Odion Ighalo's contract should they be active in the transfer market and bring in the likes of Harry Kane and Jadon Sancho.

As reported by Goal,  the Red Devils currently lead the chase for the Dortmund winger ahead of Chelsea, while Tottenham striker Kane is ready to consider a switch to Old Trafford as he favours such a move over a potential rebuild at Spurs.

Berbatov has been impressed by what he's seen from January loan signing Ighalo - who has four goals in eight games since joining Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side - but suspects that the club's summer transfer strategy will ultimately decide his long-term future.

"If Ighalo continues how he has done so far, scoring goals and helping the team, then I think he should be given another contract, but saying that you need to weigh up the situation," Betfair ambassador Berbatov told Goal. 

"Sancho and Kane are two names being talked up with moves to the club at the moment, so you need to calculate what direction the club wants to go.

"Do they want to buy new strikers? If they do it would seem strange to keep Ighalo. With the current situation, I can't see them spending too much and I think it would make sense for Ighalo to stay."

The coronavirus outbreak has halted football in England and across the globe, with Ighalo having made an impressive start to his United career prior to the Premier League being postponed.

The Nigerian's loan contract ends on May 31 but it is likely special dispensation will be given to clubs in these unprecedented circumstances so the forward should be allowed to stay until the end of the current campaign, should it be played out.

While Berbatov thinks that it could be a good idea to keep Ighalo, he doesn't think the Shanghai Shenhua forward would be content with being a back-up option beyond the 2019-20 season.

He added: "It wouldn't be a bad thing to keep him around, I think Solskjaer needs to give him his honest thoughts. At the moment I think he has more of a back-up striker role to Anthony Martial or Marcus Rashford, I think he knows that and you can see he appreciates it because when he gets a chance he does his job, which is great.

"If he is going to stay, they will all start on an equal footing and if you train well and you score goals, you will play. I don't think he will just want to be a back-up striker, nobody wants that, you want to play from the start."

United are currently fifth in the Premier League table, and all but through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League having thumped LASK 5-0 in the first leg of their last-16 tie.

It remains unclear what will happen with the remainder of the 2019-20 campaign, however, with the Premier League having announced on Friday that there will be no resumption of the season at the start of May due to the coronavirus pandemic.



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