Mexico coach Gerard Martino has talked up a move to Man Utd for Wolves striker Raul Jimenez amid speculation over his future at Molineux.
As noted by the Express, the 29-year-old has already been paired with a move to Old Trafford, and it comes as he enjoys an impressive season in which he has scored 24 goals and provided 10 assists in 48 appearances for Wolves.
Nuno Espirito Santo will undoubtedly have no desire to see him leave the club for that exact reason, as he has been a fundamental figure in their ongoing progress and development into a settled Premier League outfit and one that continues to battle for European qualification.
He may not be too impressed then with Martino’s latest comments, as seen below, as he has made a case as to why a move to Man Utd would make sense for the Mexican international.
“Looking at it from the outside today I cannot see a specialist No. 9 like Raul at United,” Martino said on ESPN show Futbol Picante. “There are many forwards like [Marcus] Rashford, [Anthony] Martial and the boy who now plays as right winger: [Mason] Greenwood but since Romelu Lukaku left I can’t see a pure number nine like Raul.
“At Juventus he will have more of a fight because [Cristiano] Ronaldo shares the inside of the pitch with whoever plays alongside him, with [Paulo] Dybala or with [Gonzalo] Higuain and maybe he has a tougher fight there.
“We who see it from the outside, you [the journalist] and even me, always have the idea that a player has to aim for more and how good it would be for him to go to play for Manchester United.”
In his defence, he makes a valid point. Since Lukaku’s exit, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer doesn’t have that target man and physical presence in the box to offer a different dynamic and look in the final third.
Perhaps he may feel he doesn’t need it given the form and impact of his current young crop of attackers, but it may come in handy when Man Utd are trying to compete on multiple fronts and need a different threat at times to expose a weakness in the opposition.
In turn, time will tell if they see Jimenez as a genuine option, as Martino is clearly convinced that he would flourish in Manchester as there is a vacant role for him in their current squad already.