Man Utd Treble winner fears ‘history is repeating itself’ with summer signing and reveals who club should have bought

MANCHESTER UNITED Treble winner Nicky Butt fears the club may have made a mistake by signing Benjamin Sesko.

Sesko, 22, is yet to score for the Red Devils after arriving from RB Leipzig in a deal which could cost up to £74million.

The 6ft 5in Slovenian ace enjoyed a strong campaign in the Bundesliga last season with 13 league goals for his club, but is yet to even start for United in the Premier League.

Sesko comes highly rated, and United boss Ruben Amorim insists that the striker has “high potential in everything he does”.

But ex-midfielder Butt believes history could be repeating itself, with Sesko’s arrival echoing that of Rasmus Hojlund.

Like Sesko, Hojlund arrived on the back of big money (£72m) from a foreign league with plenty of potential.

However, after two years wearing the Red Devils shirt – often looking bereft of confidence – Hojlund’s United career is already all but over after he was shipped off to Napoli on loan with an option to buy.

And Butt, 50, thinks United would have been better served by making a move for a Premier League proven No9, such as Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.

Speaking to BetMGM, the Class of 99′ graduate said: “I know [Matheus] Cunha has done really well over the last couple of seasons but I would really like an experienced striker.

“I hope I’m wrong but I really hope they aren’t making the same mistakes with [Benjamin] Sesko as they did with Rasmus [Hojlund].

“A young player coming in with no Premier League experience, it just feels like history repeating itself.

“Honestly, for what it would have cost, I would have gone and brought in someone like Ollie Watkins, someone to help and pull the young strikers out of a bad patch.

“When young players are just coming into the club, when the onus is on them to score goals, if they’re having a few bad games, they have to have the safety net of being pulled out of the firing line.

“Ollie Watkins, or someone like that, would be who I would have been looking to bring in.”

Watkins, 29, was reportedly valued at between £40m and £50m by his club this summer.

However, like Sesko, he is also yet to get off the mark with league goals this season.

In fact, Unai Emery’s Villans are the only team yet to score in the Prem.

Amorim’s United have scored four goals in their opening three games – three of which came in a dramatic win over newly-promoted Burnley at Old Trafford before the international break.

United have looked far from toothless, having recorded the most shots and the highest xG out of all English top-flight sides following a £200m splash on new forwards including Sesko, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.

However, ranking at the top of the column for most times hitting the woodwork also shows how wasteful the team have been, with this profligacy already costing them points against Arsenal and Fulham.

Amorim saw United score a record-low 44 goals last season, and while the same issues do need fixing, splashing £200m on a new attack looks to have helped the team’s creativity crisis at the very least.

It is also now hoped that the deadline day arrival of goalkeeper Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp can usher in a new era of assured goalkeeping between the sticks, following on from the disastrous spell of Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir across the last two seasons.

Onana is set to join Turkish club Trabzonspor on loan this week, with his loss of place as the United No1 coming after he brazenly told Amorim he was unhappy at having a 25 per cent reduction in salary for United not being in the Champions League – a clause in all United player contracts.

Meanwhile, Bayindir is set to compete with Lammens, 23, for the gloves this season, having started all three league games so far.