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LOSC Lille’s Jonathan David was a genuine striker option for Manchester United this summer until they made Joshua Zirkzee their first signing of the window.
After struggling to find the back of the net on a regular basis last season and with Anthony Martial leaving the club, recruiting a new striker was a major objective of the previous window.
The Red Devils were able to land their top target after a transfer tug-of-war with AC Milan and signed Zirkzee for £36.5m to provide support for last season’s top goal scorer Rasmus Hojlund.
The Canadian forward David has been linked to a move to Old Trafford for quite some time with the club having been credited with an interest in him as far back as 2020 when he was at Belgian side Gent.
He has scored 29 goals in 56 games for his national team and made history by scoring Canada’s first ever goal in the Copa America tournament in a victory over Peru.
American sports network ESPN have reported that United “started detailed conversations with agents in mid-June to lay the groundwork on potential deals for a number of different targets.”
Agents were told that a striker and centre back were the priority positions to replace the departing free agents Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial.
Although other reports have claimed RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko was the original top choice, ESPN insist that “Zirkzee was identified as the top target to replace Martial with Ivan Toney (Brentford) and Jonathan David (Lille) also on the shortlist.”
“It was eventually decided that Toney was too expensive” but interestingly “David, who would have cost a maximum of £25.3m, remained a live option right up until Zirkzee was signed.”
This story is corroborated as it was relayed here in June that United had made contact with David’s representatives over a move and the Lille president confirmed that the striker was available for the right price.
It seems United may have missed the boat with the Canadian as he is reportedly in talks with Lille over a new contract and Arsenal are also said to be in “the front row” to sign him in the future.
ESPN’s comments are interesting as whilst interest in David was reported, not many were aware that a deal for him was very much on if things had fallen apart with Zirkzee.
The approach is another example of Ineos’ transfer strategy of working on multiple deals and options at once. This could be seen when United quickly pivoted from Jarrad Branthwaite and signed David’s former teammate Leny Yoro in mid-July.
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