Former Manchester United forward, Dimitar Berbatov says Nigerian attacker, Odion Ighalo may no longer be needed at Old Trafford should the former European champions make attacking reinforcements in the summer.
Ighalo has impressed since joining on loan from Shanghai Shenhua and has scored four goals in eight starts for United.
While Berbatov rates Ighalo and thinks it could be a good idea to retain him, the Bulgarian fears the arrival of several marquee signings could sound the death knell on the Nigerian’s time in Manchester.
Berbatov explained United may have no need to extend Ighalo’s contract should they make a double swoop for Tottenham Hotspur striker, Harry Kane and Borussia Dortmund man, Jadon Sancho as has been widely speculated in the English media.
“If Ighalo continues how he has done so far, scoring goals and helping the team, then I think he should be given another contract, but saying that you need to weigh up the situation,” Berbatov told Goal.
“Sancho and Kane are two names being talked up with moves to the club at the moment, so you need to calculate what direction the club wants to go.
“Do they want to buy new strikers? If they do it would seem strange to keep Ighalo. With the current situation, I can’t see them spending too much and I think it would make sense for Ighalo to stay.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing to keep him around, I think Solskjaer needs to give him his honest thoughts. At the moment I think he has more of a back-up striker role to Anthony Martial or Marcus Rashford, I think he knows that and you can see he appreciates it because when he gets a chance he does his job, which is great.
“If he is going to stay, they will all start on an equal footing and if you train well and you score goals, you will play. I don’t think he will just want to be a back-up striker, nobody wants that, you want to play from the start.”
United are currently fifth in the Premier League table, and all but through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League having thumped LASK 5-0 in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
It remains unclear what will happen with the remainder of the 2019-20 campaign, however, with the Premier League having announced on Friday that there will be no resumption of the season at the start of May due to the coronavirus pandemic.
