has outlined Victor Osimhen as the striker Manchester United should look to sign in the wake of Wout Weghorst’s arrival at the club during the January transfer window, reports.
Weghorst has joined the Red Devils on loan for the rest of the season from Burnley, with Erik ten Hag having been keen to boost his attacking options. But United will likely be back in the market for at least one forward in the summer window.
And Cole, who won five Premier League titles during six years at Old Trafford, believes he knows the perfect man to fill that role is Osimhen, who has scored 12 goals to fire Napoli to the top of the Serie A table.
He believes the Nigerian could be the perfect long-term option up-front for the Red Devils, having been left shocked by the decision to bring in Weghorst to fill in until the end of the campaign.
“I think like everybody else, I was a bit surprised. He had a very good World Cup, scoring a couple of goals against Argentina, and he’s done well at Besiktas, but it’s come from nowhere,” Cole told Betway.
“I think the interesting thing is what the manager is looking for because Weghorst is 6’6”, which is different to the usual profile of United strikers. If you think back to Ruud van Nistelrooy, myself, we were off-the-shoulder strikers.
“(Anthony) Martial has been the same more recently. It’s interesting that they’ve brought in somebody like this now because I’d thought he’d want a different profile in the summer. You want to be getting crosses into Weghorst, rather than getting him away in behind.
“I think Victor Osimhen at Napoli is very good and could be the long-term natural fit. The question is whether Napoli would be prepared to let him go. He’s rangy, got a good first touch, scores goals and is a decent size as well. I watched him play against Liverpool and he was more than prepared to link the play and then run in behind.”
So far this season, Osimhen is enjoying his best run for Napoli since joining for a record fee in 2020 and there could be more to come for the player before the end of the season.
Osimhen has netted 13 goals in 18 appearances for Napoli this season.
In his third season with the Italian club, a further look at the stats from previous season shows that the player has dwarfed his numbers from the two previous seasons, and could be on his way to setting a remarkable club record at this rate.
In just 14 Serie A appearances this season, Osimhen has scored 12 goals, surpassing the total number of goals he scored in the league in his first season, (10 goals in 24 appearances), while he is two goals shy off the total number of league goals he scored last season (14 goals in 27 appearances).
Having just played about half the number of games he played in each of the previous seasons, Osimhen’s tally could well be doubled with his current 1.3 goals per game rate.
