Quick reaction to United’s reported Odion Ighalo move

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It looks like Odion Ighalo is the striker who Manchester United’s transfer spinning wheel has landed on.

SkySports report talks are being held over a loan move for the Nigerian forward.

A week ago this looked like a bad idea. There were better options, so it seemed.

Now with just over two hours left until the transfer deadline passes, it will do as a temporary measure.

Ighalo has played in the Premier League before, and as a temporary loan move, this will help the squad.

United need a striker as cover for Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial.

God forbid we have the humiliation of playing Jesse Lingard up as a false nine as we did away at West Ham earlier in the season.

There have to be some serious questions about how United got to this situation, terrible planning and an inability to conduct more than two transfers at once. But we are where we are.

There are definitely some logistical issues over a deal. He is in China, and won’t be able to undergo a proper medical. This will be a leap of faith from United.

Short term fix

In United’s situation it is more harmless to loan a player like Odion Ighalo, than pay £30 million for a player like Josh King who is not good enough long term.

Knowing he is only here for a few months, Ighalo will be desperate to make the most of it.

This wasn’t what we signed up for heading into the transfer window, but having signed Bruno Fernandes, this buys us a bit of time until the summer.

And who knows, Ighalo might have some success. The standard in China is low, but he has 10 goals in 19 games for Shanghai Shenhua.

Before that he struck 36 goals in 55 games for Changchun Yatai.

He struck 40 goals in 100 games for a struggling Watford side too.

We might just be talking ourselves into this. Let’s see how it plays out. We need somebody, and Ighalo is 100 per cent better than the alternative of signing nobody.

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