The battle for supremacy in the striker market last summer saw Manchester United land Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig.
It was a merry-go-round of activity with the likes of Viktor Gyokeres heading to Arsenal and Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak moving to Liverpool.
Nearly a year on, it’s safe to say that the jury is still out on all of those signings. Ekitike has shone in spurts on his way to 17 goals before his season was cruelly cut short with an Achilles injury.
Alexander Isak has endured injury hell himself, missing much of his first campaign at Anfield. Gyokeres is the best as far as goalscoring is concerned, firing in 21 goals in all competitions.
As for Sesko, he’s got a respectable tally of 12 goals in 32 matches. That said, for a £74m acquisition, you’d expect more.
That perhaps explains links to a new striker in the transfer market.
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Before United do anything else this summer, it is of utmost importance that the Red Devils sort out the manager situation. The likelihood is that Michael Carrick is given the gig permanently and that would be a fine reward for the turnaround he has engineered in Manchester.
Since taking over, they are the best team in the division, sitting at the top of the form table over the last 14 games with 32 points. The next best team over that run is Arsenal, who are five points behind.
They have now secured Champions League football for next season which could give them a huge boost in their bid to seal their top targets.
In that regard, Elliot Anderson is still the primary target but it’s widely thought that rivals Manchester City are in pole position to prise him away from Nottingham Forest. He could leave the City Ground to the tune of a whopping £100m.
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Anderson is not the only Premier League player the club are tracking. Away from the midfield, they are now looking towards Bournemouth and Eli Junior Kroupi.
That’s according to a report from Sports Boom, which notes that United are one of a number of teams, including Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea who are monitoring the young striker.
That said, it looks like Carrick’s men are ready to step up their interest with it reported that the Red Devils are set to make an offer of £43m, including bonuses, to steal him away from the Cherries.
It’s likely that the bid will be rejected with those at the Vitality Stadium seeking a £60m package if they are to let Kroupi leave.
How Kroupi compares to Benjamin Sesko
Sesko has not had it easy in his first season in the Premier League. Very few strikers who made the move nearly a year ago have.
While he has come good under Carrick’s reign and is improving all the time, scoring seven goals in his last 12 league matches, a tally of 12 strikes overall this season is not ideal for a player who cost such big money.
There is still time, of course, there is, for the Slovenian to improve even more. There was a realisation that when he moved from Germany last summer they were signing a project striker. Lo and behold, that certainly looks like the case.
In that regard, Kroupi is cut from a similar cloth. He’s just 19 years of age but has been making waves, big waves too.
As it happens, the young Frenchman has exactly the same hit rate as Sesko this season, scoring 12 goals in 32 games. That said, he’s three years younger and has been able to hit the ground running a lot more quickly.
Put it simply, this is one of the best young players not just in the Premier League, but also in Europe. Daniel Sturridge has hailed him as “one of the best finishers in the Premier League” while for a while now, he’s been celebrated as “the next Kylian Mbappe”, notably by leading publication GOAL.
“He’s a phenomenon. He reminds me a little of Kylian Mbappe in his playing maturity. He does everything very quickly. He already has good stats for a young person of his age.” – Tiemoue Bakayoko.
To rubber-stamp Sturridge’s viewpoint, Kroupi has the second-best conversion rate in the entire Premier League this season. The irony is that only Danny Welbeck, once of United’s parish, has a better record in front of goal.
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Best conversion rates – 2025/26 Premier League |
|
|---|---|
|
Player |
Conversion rate |
|
1) Danny Welbeck |
24.5% |
|
2) Eli Junior Kroupi |
24.4% |
|
3) Noah Okafor |
22.9% |
|
4) Viktor Gyokeres |
22.4% |
|
5) Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall |
22.2% |
|
6) Joao Pedro |
22.1% |
|
7) Tomas Soucek |
21.7% |
|
8) Thierno Barry |
21.6% |
Where does Sesko rank? Well, he’s all the way down in 22nd place with a conversion rate of 18%. To put that into context, even Casemiro (18.4%), has been more efficient in front of goal than the big Slovenia international.
That is not to say that Sesko is a bad player. He’s been brilliant in the last few months. Yet, Kroupi looks like an elite talent in the making.
His goal from the penalty spot against Crystal Palace last weekend was his 12th Premier League strike of the season, meaning that no teenager has scored more goals in their debut campaign in England’s top-flight than Kroupi. He has drawn level with Robbie Keane and Robbie Fowler in that regard.
Furthermore, he ranks 12th in the list of leading teenage scorers in Premier League history. He’s some way behind Michael Owen, who leads proceedings with 40, but he has already drawn level with Ryan Giggs, as well as surpassing Jermain Defoe (11) and Dele Alli (8). He is now just one behind Marcus Rashford and two behind Raheem Sterling.
Whether or not United need a Sesko replacement is up for debate, but in Kroupi, they would be signing some fabulous competition, somebody who could spearhead the attack for years to come.
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