Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United Close To Signing Chelsea's $75M-Target Striker: Report

Manchester United reportedly are close to signing the French side, Lyon’s star player Moussa Dembele, who is also being chased by Chelsea.

Man Utd are keen on the striker because Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is yet to find a permanent replacement for Romelu Lukaku, whom he had allowed to move from Old Trafford to Inter Milan last summer.

According to a report from Todofichajes, an agreement has been reached by Dembele, Lyon and the English club, who is ready to shell out $75 million for the striker ahead of the upcoming transfer market. The report further stated that the Man Utd’s sudden interest in Dembele, who has scored 42 goals for Lyon in 88 appearances since his debut in 2018, has surprised their Premier League rivals, Chelsea.

Moreover, since Lyon won’t be playing in the European tournaments in 2020-21 season following their result of Ligue 1 this season being cut back by the coronavirus pandemic, the club is expected to be forced to sell off their star players, as admitted by Lyon’s president Jean-Michel Aulas.

“I am going to do everything to keep the players, but players who are programmed to play in Europe could want to go elsewhere because we don't have European football,” he said in a recent interview.

As a temporary solution to fill Lukaku’s void in the side during the final hours of the January transfer window, Man Utd had signed Odion Ighalo on loan from the Chinese Super League club, Shanghai Shenhua. The Nigerian sure impressed Solskjaer and Co by scoring four goals in eight matches before the season was halted by the pandemic virus in March.

While the Chinese club is demanding just $24m for a permanent deal for Ighalo, it is still unclear if Solskjaer wants the striker in the squad on a full-time basis.