Manchester United reach agreement to sign Wout Weghorst on loan

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Manchester United have reached an agreement to sign Wout Weghorst on loan from Burnley.

The news came exclusively from Fabrizio Romano just hours before the club’s clash with Charlton on Tuesday evening that United have reached a “full, verbal agreement” to sign the Dutchman, also noting that the deal will cost around €3m to go to Besiktas, the club that he has been on loan for from Burnley.

The deal is understood to require one final step to be completed; Besiktas will only approve the deal if they find the right replacement.

Fans expect this will happen, however, given the fact that it should hardly require a meticulous, astute transfer hunt for a Süper Lig club to find a new striker, in all due respect to Besiktas.

The 6ft 6in striker was reported by Romano to be “100% keen on the move” recently and did not want to miss this big opportunity. This makes sense, with the 30-year-old coming towards the end of career having never been close to playing for a European footballing giant like The Red Devils.

Although, some supporters are in despair at the anticipated arrival of Weghorst given Liverpool and Chelsea’s January deals to sign Coady Gakpo and Joao Felix, both of whom were big transfer targets for Erik ten Hag who is having to settle for third and fourth choice options.

The Weghorst loan, to many, is reminiscent of Odion Ighalo’s move to Old Trafford in January 2020, and even Edison Cavani’s move in August of that same year. Both of these transfers are renowned for being unplanned and chaotic amongst Reds fans.

Not all fans are pessimistic on the subject of Weghorst, though. It has been discussed recently that- in addition to being an aerial threat at 6ft 6in- the Netherlands international is also light on his feet and aggressive in the press, averaging the highest number of presses per game in the Premier League in 2021/22 whilst playing for Burnley. This will bode well in a Ten Hag system.

Briefly touching on his height, he can aid a Reds team that are notoriously poor from set pieces and do not have a great aerial threat without the likes of Scott McTominay and Harry Maguire as regular starters in the side. His hold up play and link-up ability is better than what many think too, and that will be of benefit when Anthony Martial is not fit.

The loan was speculation only days ago, but it seems that fans are not far away from that infamous ‘Here we go!’ from Romano in the coming days.