![\"Watkins](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/0_GettyImages-2217035337.jpg\")
Watkins has been on United’s radar<\/p>\nOllie Watkins joined Aston Villa from Brentford five years ago and has been a consistent scorer in the Premier League.Watkins has been on United’s radar<\/p>\n
Manchester United have not directly contacted Aston Villa about the possible availability of striker Ollie Watkins.<\/p>\n
Villa remain insistent that Watkins is not for sale amid United’s search for a new striker.<\/p>\n
Watkins, 29, is under contract at Villa until 2027 but United are seeking a goalscorer with Premier League<\/a> experience to sharpen their attack.<\/p>\n England international Watkins has scored 75 goals in 184 Premier League games since he joined Villa from Brentford in September 2020.<\/p>\n United have bolstered their frontline with the \u00a3133.5m investments in Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo but want a new goalscorer to replace Rasmus Hojlund.<\/p>\n Liam Delap was United’s prime choice but the England Under 21 international chose to join Chelsea<\/a> in a \u00a330million move.<\/p>\n United are not expected to explore a possible deal for Alexander Isak, who is open to leaving Newcastle United, while Viktor Gyokeres is set to sign for Arsenal.<\/p>\n Liverpool<\/a> bought Hugo Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt, having recruited playmaker Florian Wirtz in a \u00a3116m deal.<\/p>\n RB Leipzig frontman Benjamin Sesko was of interest to United two years ago when he was at Red Bull Salzburg but the Slovenia international is under contract until 2029 and would likely favour a move to a club competing in the Champions League<\/a>.<\/p>\n Thirty-four players scored more Premier League goals than Bruno Fernandes, United’s highest scorer in the league last term with eight goals.<\/p>\n Crystal Palace figurehead Jean-Philippe Mateta is an alternative option for United.<\/p>\n —<\/p>\n Here at the Manchester Evening News, we\u2019re dedicated to bringing you the best Manchester United coverage and analysis.<\/p>\n Make sure you don\u2019t miss out on the latest United news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clicking here<\/a><\/strong> to subscribe.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Click here<\/a><\/strong> to be sent all the day\u2019s biggest stories.<\/p>\n And finally, if you\u2019d rather listen to our expert analysis then make sure to check out our Manchester is Red podcast, featuring The Samuel Luckhurst Show and The Midweek Debate. Our shows are available on all podcast platforms, including Spotify<\/a><\/strong> and Apple Podcasts<\/a><\/strong>, and you can also watch along on YouTube<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ollie Watkins joined Aston Villa from Brentford five years ago and has been a consistent scorer in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[423,9060,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-289073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-manchester-united-fc","9":"tag-manchester-united-transfer-news","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114910687705134316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}