Fabrizio Romano reveals Man United’s interest in Orkun Kokcu before Mason Mount’s arrival | OneFootball

Manchester United wanted to strengthen the midfield in the summer and after a lot of back and forth with Chelsea, finally managed to bring in Mason Mount for a hefty fee.

Erik ten Hag had primarily relied on the midfield pairing of Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in his first season and the Dane struggled in the big away games.

It was evident that the team was crying out for an energetic box-to-box midfielder and a lot of names were considered before the new No 7 arrived at Old Trafford.

United’s search for the right midfielder

Orkun Kokcu, then plying for his trade for Feyenoord, was the subject of plenty of enquiries from the 20-time English league champions.

Ten Hag has an affinity for players from the Eredivisie as can be seen from the players who have arrived at Old Trafford during his tenure and he was well aware of the strengths of the Turkish international.

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has indicated on his Youtube channel that United were indeed interested in Kokcu and Adrien Rabiot of Juventus. But in the end, it was Mount who was signed.

“He (Rabiot) was considered by the club,” Romano said, “but they wanted Mason Mount in that position as a priority target.”

“Another name considered in that position was [Orkun] Kokcu, the Feyenoord midfielder who joined Benfica.”

Kökçü joined Benfica, United signed Mount

United’s miss turned out to be Benfica’s gain as they completed the signing of Kökçü for €40m. The player put pen to paper on five-year-deal. His current contract has a €120 million release clause.

The midfielder has started all of Benfica’s games this season and has already registered one goal and two assists so far despite playing in a deep-lying position.

For United, Mount has not had the best of starts to his United career but is on the right track on the basis of his most recent outings.

Whether he can be the long-term answer to United’s midfield woes remains to be seen. He has suffered a hamstring injury that led to him missing a month’s action.

Ten Hag has employed a number of different midfield combinations and it seems he is yet to find the winning formula.