Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is desperate to bring in another striker before the transfer window closes at 11pm on Friday evening.

The Red Devils have been linked with various forwards in recent days, including Salomon Rondon, Islam Slimani and Edinson Cavani.

They have also been linked with Bournemouth forward Josh King, who began his career at Old Trafford, and a formal offer for the Norway international was submitted on Thursday night.

However, the Daily Mail claim United’s £20 million bid for King has been rejected. That particular deal is now extremely unlikely to happen, with United not prepared to match the Cherries’ £50 million asking price.

Senior Bournemouth officials reportedly described United’s offer ‘a joke’.

With just hours to go before the window shuts, Solskjaer has turned his attention back to another striker that United have been loosely linked with this month: Odion Ighalo.

The Mail say that Ighalo, best known for his time at Watford between 2014-2017, is under “serious consideration” by the Old Trafford hierarchy.

Ighalo, who scored 36 league goals in 90 matches for Watford, has spent the past few years playing in China.

He scored 36 goals in 55 games for Changchun Yatai before sealing a move to Shanghai Shenhua in February 2018.

The Nigeria international claimed he’d turned down a move to Barcelona, who signed Kevin-Prince Boateng instead, the previous month.

Ighalo has scored 10 goals in 19 games for his current employers, but won’t be playing competitive football for a while yet after the start of the Chinese Super League was delayed because of the escalation of the coronavirus epidemic.

The former Premier League striker turned 30 last June and wouldn’t be a terrible back-up option for Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood while Marcus Rashford recovers from injury.

But it’s hard not to feel that the signing of Ighalo would represent a panic buy (or panic loan) on the part of Solskjaer, Ed Woodward and co.

Update - 19:20

It seems that Ighalo is close to a move to Old Trafford.

Tottenham also made a late attempt to sign the striker on a six-month loan deal, but that offer was rejected.