Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has revealed who he would prefer his former club to sign out of Ollie Watkins and Benjamin Sesko.
Having spent around £130m on Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Diego Leon this summer, it has been reported that Man Utd‘s next priority is to sign a striker after Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee underperformed last season.
With United struggling to offload their unwanted talents, their funds are limited and they have already missed out on several targets, including Liam Delap and Viktor Gyokeres.
This has made the Red Devils turn to alternatives and it has emerged that Watkins and Sesko are currently their ‘preferred’ striker targets.
22-year-old Sesko has a longer shelf life than 29-year-old Watkins, but he is also more expensive as the RB Leipzig star is reportedly valued at 80 million euros (£69m). The Villa star, meanwhile, could potentially cost anything between £45-60m.
READ: Transfer rumour ranking: Sesko to Man Utd a re-entry; Liverpool, City, Chelsea deals close
Ferdinand is in favour of Man Utd signing Watkins over Sesko as he is more of a “guarantee”, while he has a “worry” about the younger forward.
“If you get Watkins, you’ve got guaranteed 15-20 goals really and then you’ve got that with Cunha and you’ve got that with Mbeumo,” Ferdinand said on his YouTube channel.
“Not completely guaranteed, but you’ve got double figures all the way up front.
“Bear in mind, we were 16th in terms of goals scored last season and these lot are getting you minimum 40 goals between them.”
Regarding his “worry” about Sesko, Ferdinand continued: “The only difference is that Rasmus came in and had inexperience around him in terms of [Alejandro] Garnacho one side and Amad [Diallo] the other, for instance, most of the time.
“If Sesko comes in, he’s got two players that have played Premier League, scored goals in the Premier League and backed up by Bruno [Fernandes] so I think it’s a different dynamic that he comes into.
“But the uncertainty worries me a little bit. Can he adapt to this league?”
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Ferdinand added: “I wanted a striker with experience so he wouldn’t be my first-choice, obviously, even now.
“But if Manchester United buy him and Newcastle go and get a number nine, does that mean [Alexander] Isak stays at Newcastle and Liverpool don’t get Isak?
“Liverpool’s transfer window has been nothing short of exceptional so far.”
