Soon-to-be Tottenham manager Thomas Frank has encouraged the club’s hierarchy to pursue a bid to sign Bryan Mbeumo.
Frank is set to be announced as Spurs’ new head coach next week following the sacking of Ange Postecoglou.
Postecoglou had been expected to keep his job after steering Tottenham to the Europa League title, but club chairman Daniel Levy decided to pull the trigger on Friday, citing the side’s worst-ever domestic campaign as the reason for his departure.
The north London outfit are keen to make a ‘statement signing’ to lead them into next season’s Champions League and Mbeumo finds himself at the top of their wishlist.
Mbeumo has, of course, built up a strong relationship with Frank over the last six years at Brentford, while scoring 70 goals in 242 appearances for the Bees.
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The 25-year-old forward had his best-ever season in senior football last term, racking up 20 goals and seven assists to help Brentford to a tenth-placed finish in the Premier League.
According to The Mirror, Frank has told Spurs to do everything in their power to beat United to Mbeumo this summer, with the club said to be hopeful of beating Manchester United to the signing.
United – the team Spurs beat in last month’s Europa League final – have lodged two bids for Mbeumo in recent days and the attacker is believed to be ‘open to a move’ to Old Trafford.
The Red Devils are prepared to give Mbeumo wages of £150,000-a-week with add-ons, taking the package to £200,000-a-week, while Spurs are only offering him £130,000-a-week.
However, Spurs are confident that the allure of Champions League football could give them the edge and be enough to convince Mbeumo to reject United in favour of a switch to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
It’s understood Brentford are demanding a fee in the region of £60million for their top goalscorer and prized possession.
Mbeumo has just 12 months remaining on his current contract at the Gtech Community Stadium.
After the season came to an end, Frank admitted that Mbeumo was likely to move on considering Brentford are a ‘selling club’.
‘I can definitely understand the interest in him,’ the Brentford head coach told reporters.
‘There should be interest in him. He is at his best age, he has scored 20 goals.
It appears Mbeumo’s team-mates are also resigned to the prospect of the forward moving on this summer, with Christian Norgaard recently telling Sky Sports: ‘I think Bryan is likely to go.
‘I don’t know about [Yoanne] Wissa yet. Everyone hopes that he might stay.
‘Either way, I’m happy for the season and am happy for both of them. They deserve it so much.’
Brentford stand to make a significant profit on Mbeumo given they signed the attacker from Troyes for a fee of just £5.8million – a then club-record – back in 2019.
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