Former Nigeria’s Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo has told whoever cares to listen that he wants to remain at Old Trafford despite after being offered a mammoth deal to stay at Shanghai Shenhua.
The Manchester United loanee has been a big hit since moving to Old Trafford on loan in January, scoring four times in all competitions including a stunning effort against LASK in the Europa League.
Ighalo has provided exactly the sort of cover and competition manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has wanted up front, while he has also been impressed with his attitude in training.
However, Ighalo’s deal is due to expire on May 31, meaning United are likely to lose him either during, or before, the start of the rescheduled end to the currently suspended Premier League campaign.
Shanghai are reportedly unwilling to allow United to extend Ighalo’s loan and have made it clear that the Red Devils will need to buy the 30-year-old if they want to keep him at Old Trafford.
The Chinese side, though, are desperate to hang onto the forward and have set his asking price at £15million – a big outlay for a backup striker – and have made their own offer of £400,000-a-week to convince him to reject United.
But now Ighalo has stated that his preference is to remain at Old Trafford and he would jump at the chance to make his move permanent. Ighalo was ‘bored’ on Twitter on Friday night when a fan asked if he would like to remain at United if he was offered a contract extension, to which the forward replied emphatically: ‘Of course.’
Former United striker, Dimitar Berbatov believes United should keep Ighalo, saying: ‘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.
‘[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.’
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
