Manchester United might need more than a marquee centre-forward signing like Harry Kane or Victor Osmihen this summer.
Wout Weghorst is not good enough to play for the club and his loan expires at the end of the season, which means Anthony Martial, who spends more time on the treatment table than on the pitch, will be the only recognised striker remaining.
Martial has taken part in full training at Carrington for over four weeks and yet he's still deemed not fit enough to start matches. His record with injury is appalling and only a fool would go into a new campaign relying on him to be regularly available.
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Marcus Rashford has been responsible for around 35 per cent of the team's goals this season and the need for a striker to be signed has never been so obvious, with the next stage of Erik ten Hag's rebuild hinging on the arrival of a goalscorer.
Kane has been earmarked as Ten Hag's priority signing and he feels like a forward that would immediately feel at home at Old Trafford, but signing just a single striker, albeit a world-class, prolific centre-forward, might not actually be enough.
It's thought a fee between £80million and £100m would be enough to prise Kane away from the enduring grasp of Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and he'd obviously become first-choice at United, however, rotation is often necessary.
The fixture list is set to be gruelling again, so it also seems sensible to search the market for a young, hungry backup striker, who can support a potential marquee centre-forward signing, whether that be Kane, Osmihen or someone else.
Ten Hag, who prefers to pick settled starting teams, does not seem to know the meaning of the word rotation, although it seems he'd have to make an exception if signing Kane, as history suggests his workload would need to be managed.
In the scenario that Kane does sign, which seems more realistic than ever this summer, perhaps Folarin Balogun would be an option. He has 18 league goals this season and he's just one behind Ligue 1’s joint-top scorers Kylian Mbappe and Jonathan David.
Balogun, 21, has been in sparkling form for Reims and he's said to be attracting interest from AC Milan, but he's actually an Arsenal player and someone who is enjoying his second loan stint away from the Emirates after coming through their academy.
The striker joined Arsenal at the age of eight and, after an indifferent loan spell in the Championship for the second half of last season, he's now proving he is capable of mixing it with the very best in one of Europe's top five divisions.
Although the standard of Ligue 1 is unanimously considered inferior to the Premier League, it's clear that Balogun has talent and reports suggest that he wants a permeant exit from Arsenal this summer due to competition for places.
Arsenal have Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah, while even Gabriel Martinelli has played as a striker, which means Balogun, who was born in New York but has represented England at youth level, is expected to look elsewhere.
When considering Martial's injury record, a move to Old Trafford could be sold to Balogun by offering him the backup striker role and his performances this season show that, with further development, he could certainly be an asset.
With Balogun pushing for a move away and Arsenal needing to raise funds to fund Mikel Arteta's transfer plans, a fee in the region of £25m has been touted for the forward and that seems reasonable based on where his ceiling could be.
Joe Willock and Alex Iwobi, products of Arsenal's academy, both left North London at a similar age and they're now standout performers for Newcastle and Everton respectively, highlighting a pathway for Balogun to follow.
Of course, Balogun might want consistent starts at this stage of his career and he won't get that at United, but if he's happy with being second choice behind a player like Kane, who he can learn from, a move would make sense.
United might have to get creative in the transfer market this summer and Balogun could already be on their radar.
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