Benjamin Sesko: Why Man Utd are homing in on Slovenian speed merchant who Arsenal backed away from

Manchester United first set their eyes upon Benjamin Sesko when he was 16 years old, and even had the chance to snap him up for a pittance. They didn't take it, instead leaving Red Bull Salzburg to sign the Slovenian teenager in the summer of 2019 for just €2.5 million.

In Erik ten Hag's first summer in charge in 2022, meanwhile, the Red Devils had another look at Sesko, but again balked at the price, which had by then risen to €24m for a player who had only one season of top-flight football under his belt in the Austrian Bundesliga. Instead, Sesko agreed to jump ship to fellow Red Bull franchise RB Leipzig, although he did not make the move until the following year, which is when United signed Rasmus Hojlund for up to £72m.

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to miss out on a promising and prolific striker once may be regarded as a misfortune, to miss out twice looks like carelessness. But six years after first failing to sign the player once billed as the next Erling Haaland, United look determined to bring Sesko to Old Trafford at the third time of asking.

The club have organised a secret trip to Germany, led by head of recruitment Christopher Vivell, who brought Sesko to Leipzig when he was the Bundesliga side's technical director, to try and get the deal done. And in typical United fashion, they are set to pay a huge price for their earlier indecision, with Leipzig expected to demand at least €80m (£69m/$91.5m) for the 22-year-old, who is also being pursued by Newcastle.

Yet despite the big fee and some concern that United could be about to make the same mistake they made with Hojlund by signing a costly 'project' in favour of a proven Premier League striker like Ollie Watkins, there is a lot of excitement about the striker heading to the red side of Manchester and completing Ruben Amorim's new-look attack...