Man Utd close in on Bryan Mbeumo with £70m bid

 Manchester United have made an improved bid worth up to £70m for Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo.

United have offered an initial £65m with a further £5m payable in add ons – a huge jump on the opening £55m offer they made more than six weeks ago.

Ruben Amorim is eager to have the Cameroon international on United’s pre-season tour of the US and hopes a third bid will be enough to persuade Brentford to sell.

United made an opening bid of £45m with a further £10m in add ons at the start of June but were told that was nowhere near Brentford’s valuation of a player they deemed to be worth more than the £62.5 million the Manchester club had just paid Wolves for Matheus Cunha.

They then raised their offer to £55m with an additional £7.5m in add-ons only for Brentford to also reject that bid a month ago.

Brentford are understood to have wanted more money up front and a total package that reached at least £70m.

United’s move to now offer a guaranteed sum worth £20m more than their initial bid may raise questions among some fans about why they started the bidding so low given the Cunha fee had effectively set a benchmark for any prospective deal for Mbeumo.

Amorim and his squad are due to fly to Chicago on Tuesday for the start of their pre-season tour of the US, where they will be taking part in the Premier League Summer Series with Everton, Aston Villa and Bournemouth.

Amorim has been eager to address United’s chronic shortage of goals – they managed just 44 in 38 Premier League games last season.

Mbeumo, who scored 20 goals and claimed seven assists for Brentford last season, would further bolster United’s attacking options.

The 25-year-old, who has reported back for pre-season with Brentford, is entering the final 12 months of his contract although the club have an option to extend his deal by a further 12 months.

Tottenham, who are now managed by Thomas Frank, Mbeumo’s former coach at Brentford, also wanted Mbeumo but he made it clear his sights were set on a move to United.

Amorim would also like to add a striker, central midfielder and centre-back this summer but United need to sell to raise funds to reinvest.