‘I wouldn’t be massively surprised’ – Bryan Mbeumo could stay at Brentford this summer | OneFootball

Manchester United could miss out on the signing of forward Bryan Mbeumo with Brentford’s director of football adamant that he could stay put with the Bees this summer.

United want to sign the Cameroon star, who scored 20 Premier League goals in 38 games last season, but are yet to meet Brentford’s demands.

Brentford are open to selling their star man for a hefty transfer fee but speaking at the unveiling of the club’s new head coach Keith Andrews, Bees director of football Phil Giles said: “We expected lots of interest, there’s been lots of interest.

“He’s got his own views on what he wants to do with the next part of his career and where he wants to end up, which is fair because it’s his career.

“And those conversations have been ongoing now for a couple of weeks. In terms of expectation, I don’t actually know where that’ll end up. I think we’ve made our point clear that, obviously, having had such a great season, if he earned a massive move now and it was right for us in terms of financially, we’d be open to that.

“But if he ended up here next season, I wouldn’t be massively surprised. It would be welcome. We’d be delighted. It would save me a massive headache, frankly. And that’s not off the table as well, so let’s see how it evolves.”

Mbeumo joined Brentford back in 2019, helping the club to achieve promotion from the Championship to the Premier League where he has since improved season on season.

The Bees have continued to compete in the top flight despite selling some of their top talents in the past – including Ivan Toney and David Raya.

And Giles is confident they will continue to do even if Mbeumo does depart.

“I think the first thing is every club needs to sell players,” he said.

“You need to be good sellers, so that’s the first thing. Obviously, we’re aware we can’t sell everyone, but I’m more interested to look at actually beyond those players who are regulars next season and look in the squad and see what have we got. I think the key thing is, and the reason we can be relatively relaxed about it, is I know we’ve got some really, really good players who maybe haven’t played as much as they perhaps could have done.

“And you see time and again, time and again we’ll see, we’ll sell a player, it’ll create a pathway, another player will step in and they’ll suddenly become the next superstar.

“So replacing Ivan Toney is a great example of that. Yoane Wissa wasn’t playing 100% of all the games and he stepped in last season and scored 19, which is unbelievable. Or I think back to when we sold Neil Maupay playing in the Championship, when we’ve got Ollie Watkins in to take that role, which not everyone expected us to do, and he scored 25 and moved to Villa for over £30 million a year later.

“So yeah, I think players going on and doing well and moving, actually it’s that process, that evolutionary process which enables players to come through that we’ve already got in the building to go and shine.”

Mbeumo’s team-mate Christian Norgaard, meanwhile, is expected to complete a move to Arsenal. “I think he’s earned it because he’s been an unbelievable player for us,” Giles added.

“A fantastic six years. Great captain and a brilliant person. So, listen, nothing’s done as it stands, but I think it’s certainly a strong possibility.”