Moussa Dembele celebrates after scoring (Getty Images)
According to the Daily Star, Manchester United have been given the green light to sign Lyon star Moussa Dembele for £60million in the summer.
Moussa Dembele, 23, has scored 39 goals in 82 games since joining Lyon from Celtic in a £20m deal in 2018. The Frenchman has impressed this season, scoring 19 goals in 36 appearances in all competitions for Lyon.
Chelsea have also been linked with the 23-year-old striker, but Manchester United are confident of being able to beat the Blues by handing Dembele a more lucrative deal of around £150,000-a-week, adds the report.
The Red Devils have struggled to score goals this season, with the failure to sign Romelu Lukaku’s replacement in the summer coming back to haunt Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The mistake has been exposed even more in recent weeks following the absence of Marcus Rashford, who is out until April with a double stress fracture of his back.
Rashford is the club’s top scorer with 17 goals across all competitions but goals for Solskjaer’s side have dried up in his absence. United have failed to score in their last three Premier League games, that has seen them lose ground in the race for top-four, with Tottenham and Sheffield United moving above them in the table.
Solskjaer signed Odion Ighalo on loan during the January transfer window, but he will return to parent club Shanghai Shenhua at the end of this term. Now, the United boss has made the signing of a striker a priority this summer and Moussa Dembele would be a good fit at Old Trafford.
Dembele has decent experience in English football, having previously played for both Fulham and Celtic. The Frenchman has been a prolific scorer throughout his career so far. He netted 19 goals in 64 appearances for Fulham, before netting 51 goals in 94 appearances in three seasons with Celtic. He has enhanced his reputation further with 13 goals in 23 appearances for Lyon this season.
Dembele would bring a lot of quality to Solskjaer’s attack, whilst adding depth to the squad. He has proven himself in Europe and is at the right age to make the move to the Premier League. All in all, United must do everything possible to beat Chelsea to the French striker’s signature in the summer.
