Choupo-Moting and Man Utd's five most bizarre transfer targets

FT Desk

• 8 Nov 2022 16:15 GMT
• 4 min read

Manchester United are reportedly targeting Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting as Cristiano Ronaldo's replacement in attack. He's not the only left-field rumour in recent months…

Man Utd spent €240 million in the summer - Erik ten Hag's first transfer window as manager - bringing the likes of Antony, Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez to the club, but their shopping for the season is unlikely to be finished.

The Red Devils have been linked with some players that make perfect sense: Cody Gakpo has 13 goals and 17 assists for PSV Eindhoven this season and could be available for a cut-price fee with the Dutch club in financial trouble.

READ: Gakpo transfer to Man Utd is back on

But other targets should be less appealing to the United sport. Football Transfers looks at five of the worst…

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting

Whilst it's true that Choupo-Moting is enjoying a career-best spell following the departure of Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona, scoring six goals in his last five games for Bayern Munich, he remains a limited player, one who was relegated from the Premier League with Stoke in 2018.

That's not to say he doesn't deserve credit for finding a second wind at 33, but four of those goals came against Hoffenheim, Mainz and Hertha Berlin, and the idea that he could move the needle for United seems fanciful at best.

READ: Man Utd's Ronaldo replacement Choupo-Moting 'focused on Bayern'

Marko Arnautovic

Another aging striker who was first linked with United in the summer, Marko Arnautovic's potential arrival was met with consternation by fans, who inundated the club's Director of Football John Murtough's email protesting the move.

Arnautovic has been scoring goals with Bologna before and since the speculation - seven in 13 games this season - but like Choupo-Moting, he is doing it in a league rated significantly lower the English top flight in the latest UEFA rankings, and he is the same age as the Cameroon striker. Not a long-term solution.

Adrien Rabiot

Adrien Rabiot may be a Juventus and France midfielder, but his form has fallen away like his club's over the last few seasons, and the only reason he is likely to be a starter for the world champions in Qatar this winter is that N'Golo Kante and Paul Pogba are injured.

Mother and agent Veronique once waited in the Paris Saint-Germain carpark to corner Laurent Blanc when he had dropped her son, which is not the kind of drama Ten Hag will want to invite on the club, especially when he now has Casemiro shining in central midfield.

Benjamin Sesko

Another striker, and one with 14 years on Choupo-Moting and Arnautovic, Sesko makes more sense on that level, but there are others that mean such speculation must surely be paper talk.

One: he has already signed for RB Leipzig, and will join from their sister club Red Bull Salzburg in a €24 million deal next summer. Two: for the moment, Leipzig are simply buying potential - Sesko has never scored more than five goals in an Austrian Bundesliga season.

Alessandro Bastoni

Another player to have been linked with a move to Old Trafford is Inter Milan's Italy centre-back Alessandro Bastoni. While the 23-year-old is far from a bad player, his place in the backlines of club and country have come under pressure from Francesco Acerbi in recent months.

United also have too many centre-backs as it is, with Martinez, Raphael Varane, Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof as well as Eric Bailly out on loan, and moves to Juventus or Tottenham Hotspur if the Premier League would appear to be more likely.