Indeed, it is over after what felt like 83 years. United now finally have their man that we all knew wanted to join the club back in June as per David Ornstein and yet it's taken over a month to finally hear these words from Romano.
He says that the "Green light from Brentford and club to club agreement reached for £70m package, as @TheAthleticFC reports.
Contract agreed weeks ago with Mbeumo as he only wanted Man United move."
David Ornstein says that
"Manchester United reach agreement with Brentford to sign Bryan Mbeumo. Deal between clubs struck at £65m guaranteed + up to £6m add-ons. 4 instalments. 26yo forward only wanted #MUFC & move from #BrentfordFC now being finalised."
I almost feel like asking the question of how long did Fabrizio and The Athletic have these posts waiting in the wings? Surely they must have known a long time ago that it was going to happen and just hat these sitting in their drafts?
But whatever the case is, to finally have Mbeumo on board feels like a weight lifted off all of our shoulders. I'm sure Ruben Amorim will be smiling over in Sweden as well before United's first pre-season game tomorrow against Leeds. He too must have been getting frustrated with this deal taking forever.
I do believe that we paid a little too much though. I really do believe that something closer to the £62.5m we paid for Cunha was more realistic but hey, it's not as if we haven't heavily overpaid for players in the past, right? At least with Mbeumo, it's not waaaayyyyy over.
I think the major problem with this deal is the time it took only for United to pretty much give Brentford what they wanted anyway. Yes at first, it did seem as if the Bees were willing to accept something in the region of £62.5m - £65m but when they upped it to £70m, I think that's when we started to have some reservations.
The fact that United remained in talks even through all this meant that we just needed to get it over the line even if it is a little too much.
Take away that price and the length of time it's taken to get it over the line however, and this isn't a bad deal. Mbeumo is a top player and is the exact type of profile we need. 25 years old, Premier League proven and scores a lot of goals. His 20 strikes in the league last season put him 4th on the top scorers charts. Those 20 goals also happen to be more than all our forwards combined 💀.
I would just like to say thank you to Newcastle as well. I believe if they hadn't shown an interest in signing Mbeumo's teammate err, former teammate 😅, Yoanne Wissa, United may have dragged this deal on even longer.
Not so long ago, Phil Giles, Brentford's Sporting Director, came out in an interview and said how the club wouldn't want to lose both players in the same window. With Wissa and Mbeumo drawing interest, it almost became a sort of race to see who could buy which player first.
As we've been linked with Mbeumo for so long and had previous bids rejected, we would've looked like real knobheads had Newcastle bought Wissa and Brentford didn't let go off Mbeumo, who according to Giles, was happy to stay at the London club.
Luckily that isn't the case.
However, I would just like to ask, do we actually need Mbeumo, or any other attacking midfielder? I feel that this area of the team wasn't as high a priority in terms of needing improvement compared to striker and goalkeeper.
I do agree we needed another creative but I would've preferred a new no 9 or no 1. We also signed Cunha and still have the likes of Bruno, Amad, Mount, Mainoo and even Zirkzee can play there.
Nevertheless, I ain't complaining about bringing in a player of Mbeumo's quality and pedigree. He is undoubtedly a top player and will absolutely improve us.
Bryan Mbeumo, welcome to Manchester United🤝.