Manchester United finally pulled the trigger.
After weeks fencing with Newcastle, an agreement in principle with RB Leipzig delivers Benjamin Šeško to Old Trafford according to Fabrizio Romano: £65m plus £7.3m in add-ons, a five-year deal, medicals set after his flight to Manchester.
Preference mattered; the 6ft 5in Slovenian chose the badge, the stage, the rebuild.
Context, brutal and simple: United scored 44 league goals and finished 15th. Purpose now trumps posture. Rúben Amorim wanted a ruthless spear; the room gets range, timing, and a first step that turns half spaces into exits.
The fantasy writes itself, because the data does, too. Bruno Fernandes led the Premier League with 91 chances created; only ten became goals.
Bryan Mbeumo fashioned 70, Matheus Cunha 57. Add Šeško’s vertical runs and near-post habits and those passes stop dying hands-length from glory. Hurry, because August asks questions fast.
This window built an attack by design. Cunha to carry and combine. Mbeumo to bend lines and punish at the far post. Šeško to finish early, not late. The triangle lets Amorim press higher without fear and rest with the ball when legs burn. Group identity first; star glow follows.
New doubts arrive with every signing. Can he translate timing from Leipzig to the Premier League’s noise? Can United, without Europe, keep concentration between Saturdays? The answers are earned, not assumed.
But tonight the purpose is clear: restore belonging, then climb.
Arsenal first, records on the line, the opener a verdict and a beginning, under bright, unforgiving August lights tonight.