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Solskjaer comments on whether Ighalo will be at Man United next season

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hinted that on-loan striker Odion Ighalo could still be at Old Trafford next season.

The Nigerian forward moved to the Red Devils in the January transfer window and has surpassed expectations by scoring a number of important goals for the Premier League side when given the opportunity to play.

United have been short of options in the final third at times this season, with injuries to Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.

After Romelu Lukaku left the Red Devils last summer, some United fans had been questioning why a new striker was not added by the Old Trafford hierarchy.

Ighalo has certainly plugged a gap and the 30-year-old scored again in the 5-0 demolition of Austrian side LASK on Thursday night in the Europa League.

Speaking after the game, United manager Solskjaer suggested that the Manchester club would need a player with the African hitman’s attributes in 2020-21.

“Odion has done really well since he came in and he’s enjoying himself,” Metro quote the Red Devils boss as saying.

“And he will improve and get better but he has qualities we saw in him and we needed and we will still need those qualities for next season, so let’s see what we will do.”

United to sign Ighalo on a permanent deal?

There is little doubt that Ighalo would love the opportunity to sign for United on a permanent basis, while his parent club Shanghai Shenhua may be forced to sell the striker due to change in the Chinese Super League’s foreign player policy.

Red Devils fans will hope that the club go all out to sign a recognised, top-class centre forward in the summer as the famous club looks to get back into silverware contention.

Ighalo would certainly not fit that mould, but the 30-year-old has shown that he knows where the back of the net is in his short time at Old Trafford, scoring four goals thusfar.

Should United struggle to land other targets ahead of next season, moving for the veteran Nigerian could well be a canny move – despite it not fulfilling the supporters’ dreams of the club landing a world superstar.

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