Manchester United should target perfect £50m Bryan Mbeumo alternative Ruben Amorim never gave up on

Manchester United remain determined to sign Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo this summer but a move to Old Trafford is by no means certain.

The 25-year-old is United's top target as Ruben Amorim looks to sign another player to play alongside new signing Matheus Cunha in the two attacking midfield positions in his 3-4-2-1 formation.

United submitted an opening offer of £45million with a further £10million in add-ons for Mbeumo, but it fell short of Brentford’s valuation and talks are continuing between the clubs.

Mbeumo is thought to be keen to join United but until the two clubs reach an agreement his desire to move to Old Trafford remains immaterial.

United would like to wrap up a deal for Mbeumo as soon as possible so he can report for the start of pre-season at Carrington in July.

But Tottenham are also interested in the Cameroon international and his relationship with his former Bees manager Thomas Frank, who has just been appointed as Spurs boss, could prove to be a crucial bargaining chip in their pursuit of the 20-goal forward.

Should United be forced to look elsewhere, then they might look at a player Amorim knows very well from his time as Sporting CP manager.

Using DataMB's player similarity generator tool to bring up players with similar characteristics to Mbeumo, one of the five names to emerge was Sporting star Francisco Trincao.

The Portuguese international was considered one of the brightest young talents in world football when he made the switch from Braga to Barcelona in the summer of 2020.

However, he never really managed to break into the first team and after a loan spell with Wolves, he returned to Portugal to sign for Sporting in the summer of 2022.

There he worked under Amorim for the first time and