Why Man Utd should go all-out for Robert Lewandowski
Stuart Telford
- 10 Jul 2022 08:37 BST
- 3 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Manchester United. The Red Devils should go all-out to sign Robert Lewandowski from Bayern Munich as his replacement.
Ronaldo wants to pursue Champions League football next season; and Lewandowski has reportedly agreed terms with Barcelona, but Manchester United should make the Poland striker a priority.
Firstly, Man Utd will have a hole in their attack should Ronaldo depart. The Portuguese superstar returned to the club from Juventus last summer and top scored with 18 Premier League goals and a further six in the Champions League.
HAT-TRICK HERO 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍 ⚽️⚽️⚽️#MUFC | @Cristiano pic.twitter.com/x0QachBUCd
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 13, 2022
But as a five-time Ballon d'Or winner who has been crowned a European champion five times at club level, United's sixth-place finish in the league last season means Ronaldo's chances of adding to those accolades are fading fast at 37. Unless, of course, he moves.
Ronaldo has not travelled with United for their first pre-season under Erik ten Hag - "granted additional time off to deal with a family issue" the reason given by the club for his absence from Austria and Thailand.
Lewandowski may be more available than he looks, meanwhile. A Bayern club legend with 344 goals in 375 games since swapping Borussia Dortmund for Bavaria in 2014, things have turned sour between player and club in recent weeks.
Lewandowski: 'I only want to leave Bayern'
"I only want to leave Bayern," Lewandowski said publicly in June. "Loyalty and respect are more important than work. The best way is to find a solution together."
Barcelona have since agreed terms with the Pole, and are in the process of activating "financial levers" which would allow the debt-ridden Catalan giants to fund a transfer.
However, Bayern have said they will only accept an upfront fee of €50 million, responding to Barcelona's flirtation with their player with the belief that Barca might not even exist as an ongoing entity in a few years.
Paris Saint-Germain have been mooted as a possible alternative destination, and while they certainly have the money, so too do United - as well as a more lucrative domestic competition to play in in sponsorship terms, the Premier League's viewing figures something Ligue 1 could only dream of.
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Ronaldo's goals also masked an inconvenient truth last season: whilst he scored 24 in all competitions, United's overall attacking output went down considerably - 73 goals as Premier League runners-up in 2020/21 without Ronaldo; 57 as they finished sixth with him last year.
Lewandowski should have won a Ballon d'Or of his own in 2020 after winning a sextuple and finishing as top scorer in every single competition; his time at Bayern is up, Barcelona can't afford him, Man Utd can.
Over to you, Erik.
