- 6 months ago
The race to sign Benjamin Šeško is heating up — but will the RB Leipzig striker choose European football with Newcastle United, or join the Rubén Amorim rebuild at Manchester United? In this latest video of 'What's On Our Feed?', we break down the pros and cons of both destinations, from playing time and tactical fit to ambitions and long-term project potential.
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00:00Today we're looking at Benjamin Cesco's Premier League options and saying goodbye to a Premier League legend.
00:05I'm Matt from 442 and here's what's on our feed.
00:10Let's begin with Benjamin Cesco and his Premier League options, of which it seems there are two.
00:16I think you guys knew that already.
00:18Manchester United or Newcastle.
00:20First off, both of them can do with him tactically.
00:23Cesco seems to fit this mould of the number nine, the physical target man who's definitely the focal point of an attack, can bring others into play, can get on the end of crosses.
00:34It's very in this Haaland, Jokeres, Solanke, Isaac kind of style.
00:39Now at the moment, according to reports, Manchester United are his favoured option, which is a little bit interesting.
00:47Given that Newcastle United are the ones with not just any European football, but with Champions League football next season.
00:54However, Manchester United are our new look, let's call it that.
00:58They freshened up.
00:59Kunia is in, Mbwemo is in, Rashford is out.
01:02It looks like Garnaccio is leaving.
01:03Potentially Hoyland and Xerxes are going to go as well.
01:05There's an argument to be made without European football.
01:09United are going to have a better season because, well, they're going to have less distractions.
01:13They're going to be playing fewer games.
01:14They're going to be fresher to hit the Premier League hard on the weekend.
01:19To be honest, a club the size of Manchester United are never too far away from having a positive season and getting back into European football.
01:28Now, I say this with the most recent season being the perfect example.
01:32United finished 15th, was it?
01:3414th?
01:3515th.
01:35Very poor by their standards.
01:37However, they've then gone into the summer, still had enough money, enough wage budget, enough pull to bring in Mbwemo and Kunia.
01:46Both of whom played for teams that finished above Manchester United in the league table.
01:50And Mbwemo especially has been on the up and up and up with Brentford, who are on the up and up.
01:55So the fact that they can do that just goes to show you that sooner or later, United will have another good season and get back into European football.
02:02Now, obviously, Newcastle will do the same as well, but it just seems like that isn't necessarily a factor for Szczesko or for any other player that United don't have European football this season.
02:15Because I think it's very, very achievable to think that they might have it next season onwards.
02:20Like, United putting together a good campaign, finishing in Europe.
02:24What's that?
02:25The top eight?
02:25The top seven?
02:26Top eight?
02:26Maybe winning a cup?
02:27It's not completely unthinkable.
02:29As for Newcastle, though, it basically all hinges on the Alexander-Izac deal.
02:33We know this.
02:34We know there's a lot of talk about the Swede leaving, especially for Liverpool.
02:37But look, I think it kind of works for and against Newcastle.
02:44If Izac leaves, they're getting rid of a player who doesn't want to be at the club.
02:48That's good.
02:49Szczesko comes in and he's a good replacement.
02:51That's also very good.
02:52And for those of you saying, oh, he hasn't been as good, I may remind you that Alexander-Izac's numbers weren't exactly spectacular.
02:57He didn't exactly do that well at Dortmund.
02:59At Real Sociedad, he had okay seasons.
03:02But before coming to the Premier League, certainly, at the time, I think it was about 70-odd million that Newcastle signed Izac from Sociedad for.
03:09He wasn't a £70 million player at the time.
03:12Certainly wasn't putting up the numbers.
03:14So there's an argument to say that Szczesko could be the next Izac.
03:16Certainly, they have similar playing styles.
03:19And I think Szczesko could benefit from Eddie Howe's system just as much as Izac did.
03:24And the problem is that they're not going to sign Szczesko until Izac leaves, until they know they need a replacement.
03:33But once Izac has left, RB Leipzig, who are going to be selling Benjamin Szczesko, now know that they've got £120 million in the bank.
03:42They might not have it all at once.
03:43It's like, I'm aware that costs are spread out over the course of a few seasons.
03:47But they will know that Newcastle are in a financial position to spend a lot of money.
03:52Because whether it's this summer in one chunk, which I highly doubt, or over the next few years, they will be getting £120 million, maybe plus a few add-ons, from Liverpool.
04:01Which then will push the price a little bit further for Szczesko.
04:05It's a complicated one for both sides.
04:08But yeah, I would say that the reason Szczesko probably would want Manchester United is, look, as much as you want to talk about the last decade being poor, historically, they are a bigger club in Premier League terms, in English football terms, in success terms than Newcastle are.
04:22As for where he fits in at Manchester United, actually, I feel like he'd be the main striker ahead of Matthias Cunha.
04:28I know Cunha can play centre-forward.
04:29I don't see Cunha dropping deeper and taking over the number 10 role from Bruno Fernandes.
04:35But yeah, there's definitely options to be had.
04:37And like I said, when you haven't got European football, and you can play one game, you know, in the Premier League, maybe two games per week, at certain periods throughout the season, being able to switch between two players like that is unbelievably good.
04:48On to one player moving into the Premier League, potentially, from one who's just left.
04:53And it's Xiongmin Sun.
04:54And this will hurt Spurs fans.
04:56It certainly hurt a lot of the players.
04:57I don't know if you saw the videos of Sun playing his final game for the club after 10 years.
05:02It was against Newcastle in a pre-season friendly in South Korea.
05:05A very, very fitting way for him to end his time in the Premier League, you know, in his home country.
05:09There were tears.
05:10There were tears to be had.
05:11But even the Newcastle players were joining in like the goodbye on the pitch.
05:15And I think it actually works.
05:18Like, no team wants to see one of their legendary players leave.
05:21No fans want to see one of their legendary players leave.
05:23Never mind all the teammates.
05:24James Madison posted like a really nice three-minute video in tribute to Sun.
05:29But it kind of makes sense in the same way that it made sense when Harry Kane left, when Ange joined the club.
05:37Harry Kane leaving was such a point of discussion every single transfer window for Spurs for so many years.
05:42And when he finally left, Spurs reinvested the money and it felt like a changing of the guard is maybe a bit too strong.
05:50But it felt like a point to go, right, we're starting afresh.
05:53You know, the legacy from the old guard is out.
05:55Ange is in.
05:56Obviously, here we are two years later and the same thing's happened again.
05:58The manager's changed.
05:59But now Thomas Frank is in.
06:01Spurs have made some good signings.
06:02They're looking to the future.
06:03And it feels like a really good time for Sun to say, this is the end of that era.
06:08This is the end of the last decade of Tottenham Hotspur.
06:10And then he's leaving.
06:11And there's a few who have been left over from, I guess, the time Sun joined.
06:15Ben Davies is the only one, actually, that comes to mind.
06:18And it feels like it's a good time for him to go.
06:20Jong-un's son lifts the Europa League in his last competitive match for Spurs.
06:24He consolidates himself as a legend.
06:26He's definitely a Premier League legend for all that he's done in the last 10 years.
06:30It just seems to make sense.
06:31And actually, talking about that legacy, the amount of goal contributions he's had since
06:35joining the club is third in Premier League, in the Premier League, only behind Mo Salah
06:41and Harry Kane.
06:42That is immense consistency over 10 years.
06:45I think there's four Player of the Month awards in there.
06:47One Premier League golden boot.
06:49Over 100 assists for Spurs.
06:51Over 150 goals.
06:52Over 400 appearances for them in all competitions.
06:55You know, when Jurgen Klopp says that's the one regret in his career, not signing Kilman
06:58Son, you know you're a pretty good player.
07:00I would genuinely put him in the top five wingers of all time in the Premier League.
07:04For what Son has done, for his contributions, for the way he's played.
07:08Yeah, maybe top five.
07:09Maybe fourth or fifth best Premier League left winger of all time.
07:13Let me know in the comments where you'd place him.
07:16And talking of placing or replacing, it's how does Spurs replace him?
07:19And it's a rather unusual one because they can replace him in the starting line-up with
07:24Tell, Wilson, Odeber, Thomas Frank was even talking about Brendan Johnson switching sides
07:30from the right-hand side to the left.
07:32But it's not just positionally they need to replace Jong-min Son.
07:35It's contribution-wise.
07:37It's the goals.
07:38If, let's take Tell for example, if Tell can come into left wing and help Dominic Solanke
07:43score more goals, that's fine.
07:45And they've replaced the goals that Son was bringing to the team.
07:47But if not, it's a really, really big reliance that they've had on Son in the last few years
07:52that they'll need to replace.
07:53Whether that's from the left winger.
07:55Whether it's from helping Sinanke score more.
07:57Whether it's buying another number 10.
07:59Especially with Maddison now injured.
08:00That is going to help score more goals.
08:02They need to replace more than just another number in starting XI.
08:06They need to replace his output.
08:08They'll need to get back into the transfer market.
08:10Spurs don't exactly do things quickly, let's say.
08:13And they threatened to do things quickly, only in the summer with Morgan Gibbs-White.
08:16And look what happened there.
08:16That slipped through their fingers.
08:18Ebereche Eze would be perfect in terms of playing central and left.
08:21It looks like he's more inclined to join Arsenal.
08:23But yeah, that's basically what is going to be going down and what needs to be done at Spurs.
08:28There was a really, really good post from Richarlison tagging Spurs, saying make it happen
08:32on his Instagram.
08:34And it's a bronze statue of Spurs lifting Euro for league.
08:38And honestly, Spurs don't have too many legends in the Premier League era that maybe would
08:42deserve a statue.
08:43There's nothing kind of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne level at Manchester City.
08:47Having said that, 10 years at the club, a meaningful contributor over those 10 years
08:51and having lifted the Europa League trophy as captain, maybe he's got more of an argument
08:55to have a bronze statue outside of the stadium than Harry Kane doesn't.
08:59That's really saying something.
09:01And to finish off though, we'll do something that's quite amusing, definitely to loads of
09:05you in the comments section on Instagram under a post from Porto who announced their new
09:09signing of Luke De Jong because they announced it before a match in some sort of throwback
09:13to when nobody knew that a transfer was happening and the comments are ripping Fabrizio Romano.
09:18You sleeping on this one.
09:20He knew nothing about it, this, that and the other.
09:22In the world of transfers where everyone seems to know what's happening before the player
09:26even knows, I found this quite funny.
09:29And it is quite cool.
09:30It is quite cool that you go as a Porto fan to the game and you think, oh, we're going
09:34to watch a pre-season game.
09:35And then, yeah, a brand new signing gets unveiled in Luke De Jong.
09:38I think that's really, really cool.
09:40So, yeah, that was everything that was on our feed for this week.
09:44But before we go, one more thing.
09:46This is the 442 Season Preview.
09:49It's our latest magazine.
09:50It's out now in stores.
09:51You can go and buy it.
09:52I've even written a little thing about my football club in there.
09:55See if you can tell who that is.
09:56And there's loads, loads of other bits in the magazine detailing the preview of the
10:02brand new Premier League season, Champions League season, Championship season, I should
10:06say, and loads more cool things about the upcoming campaign of English football.
10:10So, yeah, make sure you check that out now.
10:12You get two magazines in there as well.
10:14As for right this second, though, you can hit that subscribe button.
10:17Give us a like and drop some comments down below.
10:20Like I said, is Hugh Minson a top five Premier League left winger of all time?
10:24And where do you think Benjamin Szczesko will end up?
10:26That's all from me for today, though, and I'll see you in the next one.
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