On the 2nd June it was reported by David Orstein, from TheAthleticFC, that the Cameroonian winger Bryan Mbeumo had decided he wanted to move to Manchester United. What followed was a lengthy 44-day saga of seemingly endless negotiations and Brentford rejecting bid after bid from Manchester United, who deemed their proposals reasonable for the 26-year-old winger. The two clubs eventually reached an agreement of £65m + £6m in Add-ons which is a total package deal of £71m for Bryan Mbeumo after his 20-goal campaign for Brentford last season. For many this price seems rather steep for a player who had 1 year left on his contract and just completed his first Premier League season with double figures after 4 years with Brentford in England’s top flight.

This is funnily enough the current market for Premier League players this window so far. From multiple sources, Brentford’s benchmark for their former star forward was around £65m, an amount reasonably similar to the amount Manchester United paid for Mattheus Cunha who had a release clause of £62.5m. After Man Utd’s initial first 2 bids were rejected by Brentford because they did not meet the £65m asking price, the price was later increased because of, what some speculate, business going on elsewhere in the league with 3 other clubs top clubs making quite pricey deals for players who were nowhere near Bryan Mbeumo’s numbers from the 2024/25 season. Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United all showed intial interest in Bryan Mbeumo but the Cameroonian made it clear that his dream move was Manchester United or he would be content with staying at Brentford. The same 3 clubs then went on to search for alternative options which may or may not have affected the ongoing negotiations between Manchester United and Brentford.

Newcastle United were the first club to complete their business by signing former Man Utd winger Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest for £55m, Tottenham Hotspur were up next with their bit of business signing Mohammed Kudus from West Ham United for £55m and finally Arsenal completed the list by signing Noni Madueke from Chelsea for a complete package deal of £50m. To put these prices into perspective, we will first look at the stats of all 4 players in the Premier League last year:

  • Anthony Elanga – 38 Apps – 6 Goals – 11 Assists
  • Mohammed Kudus – 32 Apps – 5 Goals – 3 Assists
  • Noni Madueke – 32 Apps – 7 Goals – 3 Assists
  • Bryan Mbeumo – 38 Apps – 20 Goals – 7 Assists

From these numbers alone, Brentford seemed justified in their valuation in their former star forward since the other 3 wingers were valued at £50m-£55m with stats that barely compare to Bryan Mbeumo. If we were to look at the players values from their overall Premier League stats, the numbers would look like this:

  • Anthony Elanga –113 Apps – 14 Goals – 23 Assists
  • Mohammed Kudus – 65 Apps – 13 Goals – 9 Assists
  • Noni Madueke – 67 Apps – 13 Goals – 5 Assists
  • Bryan Mbeumo – 136 Apps – 42 Goals – 28 Assists

Bryan Mbeumo has the slight advantage being a part of Brentford’s first team since before their promotion to the Premier League and being in the Premier League for slightly longer than Kudus and Madueke, however, even if you just compared the stats from the previous 2-3 seasons Bryan Mbeumo is still pretty clear of his winger competitors.

The more you look at the numbers, you could even make an argument that Manchester United got a bargain for Bryan Mbeumo considering the current market and due to the fact that the agreement between the two clubs was that Man Utd would pay off the deal in 4 instalments meaning that Man Utd are not paying the full £65m upfront, which is a smart bit of business on their part. As you can see, the market for wingers in the Premier League is quite interesting and it’s only going to get more interesting because it’s only July and there is still plenty of time left in the transfer window. There are still a few wingers out there, like Alejandro Garnacho for example, who are looking to find a new Premier League club this season so it will be very interesting to see how that saga unfolds.