27 Aug 2026 12:37:44
Seemingly we are in talks with Fiorentina after they submitted an official bid for Zirkzee.
They want a loan, and have offered a loan fee of €5m. They also want a buy clause and negotiations are underway for this.
Suspect this may well get done as best for all parties. Could well open a space for a replacement. Wonder if there are any surprises behind the scenes. Hope so.
27 Aug 2026 13:26:00
A guaranteed loan to buy is needed, then it will be classed as a sale under SCR.
27 Aug 2026 13:41:00
Italian clubs drive me mad.... It's always a bloody loan.
27 Aug 2026 14:48:28
Hope they have a striker lined up. Going into the season with just Sesko is mad. Especially as he seems to pick up injuries quite a bit.
I know others can play there, but it's not their natural position, and it shows when they play there.
The team and squad need another option for out and out striker.
27 Aug 2026 16:15:43
Watkins/Mateta.
27 Aug 2026 16:32:24
Cunha/Mateta.
27 Aug 2026 17:29:00
Watkins off to Saudi. It's road Mateta, most likely too expensive and honestly not good enough. Ivan Toney maybe.
27 Aug 2026 18:07:55
Ivan Toney won't come back because tax implications. Mateta would be best we can hope for.
27 Aug 2026 19:37:29
I've no objection to Zirkzee moving, and I'm delighted it frees up space to get a cf in to help Sesko and challenge him for a starting spot.
I've not seen us really linked with anybody all summer with any credibility to it.
Whomever it is can't do any worse than Zirkzee, it's hard to know what profile they will go for.
I've no idea at all who they will target.
27 Aug 2026 22:08:47
Hasn't Tony earned enough? If he comes back to the Premier League, it would help him in terms of his England place. Watkins has probably harmed his own chances by going.
I would welcome a motivated Tony.
28 Aug 2026 10:21:38
I love the idea that there is a queue of clubs fighting over signing Zirkzee. What an underwhelming player he's been. I don't even know what position to tag him with.
28 Aug 2026 10:52:20
Mateta looks like the most likely, and he wants out of Palace, and would be a good second option to Sesko. Seems to be some noise around the lad at Freiburg, but don't know anything about him.
However, the way we have moved this summer, it could be we are working on someone that is not being discussed, so we will have to see going into the window close.
28 Aug 2026 10:41:08
It's a tricky one, in an ideal world we'd sign a more experienced striker to rotate/challenge Sesko up front.
The problem is that it's pretty slim pickings.
Oli Watkins would probably have been the best option, but is going to Saudi for a large fee.
Ivan Toney could be an interesting option, but much like Henderson he would be forced to pay a large tax bill on his return to the UK. I believe Henderson spent a season with Ajax in the Netherlands to avoid that. Even if we could get him for a reasonable price, his wages would be excessive, especially for the role we need.
Jean-Phillpe Mateta on paper looks like a sensible choice, EPL proven, in his final year and Palace would accept a reasonable fee for him. However, his move to AC Milan broke down due to concerns that came up in his medical. Given that we pulled the plug in the Ederson deal for similar reasons, I wonder whether he is someone the club would seriously look at.
Viktor Osimhen is probably the premier option, but will cost a fortune both in fee and wages, has had injury concerns in the past, and would demand to be first choice. Which would limit Sesko's game time.
A name we haven't been linked with but who I personally think could be a good option is Marcus Thuram from Inter Milan. Strong, and quick, I don't think he'd have a issue adapting to the EPL. Has a history of also playing out wide, and can be a centre forward who creates for his teammates. At 29, is a great age to come in and challenge Sesko for a few years, but isn't necessarily going to expect to be first choice (more accepting of fighting for his place, as he has at Inter). Inter have also just brought back Pio Esposito who will push Thuram for a starting spot.
However, as we can see if we are looking for a striker who is 26-30 years old, the options are pretty slim, and certainly not ideal.
I wonder if the club might look at signing a younger, hungry, up and coming player to push/compete with Sesko. Someone who hasn't yet quite had a breakout season, and as such could be available for a reasonable fee. The kind of player who if he doesn't quite make it to the level we need that we could sell them in a couple of years for a similar fee or even a profit.
Some options could be:
Samu Aghehowa maybe from Porto (although I doubt he'd be cheap enough), Matias Fernandez-Pardo from Lille, Igor Matanovic from Freiberg, Marc Guiu from Chelsea, or Nicolo Tresoldi from Club Brugge.
I wonder if the club might go down that route to replace Zirkzee.
28 Aug 2026 13:12:34
Am I alone in being absolutely mystified, along with being massively annoyed, at how terrible, and I do mean utterly incompetent and terrible, Man Utd are at player sales.
Delap gets sold by Chelsea for £50m despite being utterly s**** and scoring only two goals all season, including only one in the league in 28 games, and yet we are selling for half that amount for Zirkzee who is absolutely proven in Italy and scored twice as many league goals in 4 fewer games. And yet again, a bloody loan. Unbelievably s*** negotiators and terrible comms to agents, media, and rumour mills. We are absolutely atrocious at sales, the worst selling club across Europe by a country mile. Ineos have done a good, not great but good job of resetting the expectations of selling clubs, but wow, when it comes to getting rid of the players we don't want, we are useless.
Rijjnders was a crap purchase by City and yet they get £55m for him, Newcastle just blapped £55m on Njco Gonzales who has done nothing whilst at City and yet leaves for a £5m profit. Nicolas Jackson gets sold for £65m despite bombing in the Premier League and being out on three loans. What the hell is wrong with these people? And don't even start with wages because Zirkzee is on peanuts compared to Delap, Jackson or Gonzales — 50k less than Delap, same money as Gonzales and 25k less than Jackson. We cannot keep selling assets so badly just because we don't want to keep them. It doesn't cause issues for anyone else, so why do we accept this inept approach to sales?
28 Aug 2026 14:05:50
Either way we need a striker and left back as minimum.
28 Aug 2026 18:32:39
The Delap one I would give a little bit of a pass on. The only reason he was so cheap last summer was due to a clause in his contract, otherwise he'd have been a 50m player last summer.
He's young, homegrown, and English to boot. I can see why he went for how much he did this summer. He's certainly worth more than what Chelsea paid for him, even with his poor season last time out.
28 Aug 2026 23:28:36
But what do you put the rest of it down to, Shappy? It's just farcical how we don't get good value, and to be fair it goes back to Fergie's days. Madrid couldn't believe how cheap we were, happy to sell Beckham for.
Stam was sold for peanuts, so were Ince and Hughes, and also van Nistelrooy. We just seek to cause our own headaches when players become unwanted.