Manchester United should seriously consider keeping hold of Odion Ighalo for next season after an impressive start to his loan spell, believes former Red Devils striker Dimitar Berbatov.
The Nigerian has scored four goals in eight appearances for United since his surprise arrival on loan from Chinese club Shanghai Shenua in January.
There seemed little chance that the move would be made permanent when he arrived, but his displays, and goals, have made it a serious possibility, and one that the player would be thrilled to pursue.
Ighalo grew up as a Man Utd fan and is considering taking a significant pay cut to stay at Old Trafford rather than return to the Chinese Super League, and Berbatov feels the club should encourage him to stay, rather than spend big on other targets.
‘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.
‘[Jadon] Sancho and [Harry] 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.’
The 30-year-old has reportedly been offered £400,000-a-week by Shanghai Shenua to return to the Chinese Super League, but would prefer to stay in Manchester if a deal can be done.
As a fan of the club, Ighalo is comfortably to play a supporting role behind the likes of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, and Berbatov sees this as a reason to keep hold of him.
‘It wouldn’t be a bad thing to keep him around, I think Solskjaer needs to give him his honest thoughts,’ continued the Bulgarian.
‘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.’
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