According to the French newspaper Le Teams, Manchester United have begun talks to sign Jean-Philippe Mateta with Crystal Palace. The 27-year-old has been a productive season, notably scoring eight goals in 2025, including a brace at Old Trafford to help the London Eagles beat the Red Devils, impressing Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS.

According to French media, although Crystal Palace are also in contract renewal talks with Mateta, they will be willing to sell the French striker if they can receive a transfer fee of £40 million. Mateta is currently recovering from an injury after being kicked in the head by goalkeeper Liam Roberts in the FA Cup quarter-final against Millwall in the Championship and required 25 stitches to repair his torn left ear.

Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner is optimistic that Mateta could return for the FA Cup quarter-final against Fulham before the end of the month. Millwall said Roberts had personally apologised to Mateta, who was suspended for six games.

Crystal Palace beat Ipswich Town 1-0 in the Premier League on Saturday and Glasner revealed Mateta's injury at his press conference: "He's in good condition, he's at home and he's recovering well. He didn't have a broken bone or a concussion, just a huge wound that needed to be healed. He will travel to Marbella next week with the team, but he will only be able to train alone. If all goes well, we predict he will be available against Fulham."

Manchester United scouts have looked at Mateta's performances before and boss Ruben Amorim needs a striker who can score, as Hojlund and Zirkze have been inefficient in scoring goals in the Premier League, and their league points can be counted on one hand: Hojlund with two and Zirkze with three. Hojlund, in particular, has failed to score in 19 games and his confidence has eroded.

Former England striker Alan Shearer said: 'Hojlund is not going to enjoy everything he has at the moment, it must be sad not to score for so long. Moreover, he doesn't have many chances, which is the more worrying situation. He has to keep going and find the place to score, because if he doesn't, he'll never score. It can be hard, you need to be mentally strong as well and not be afraid to miss out on opportunities. You have to be persistent and train hard because eventually there will be a chance in front of you and that could be a season-changing moment."

Another England legend, Troy Dieney, believes Mateta will not be the answer to United's forward problems. "He's not Manchester United's answer because he's not even Crystal Palace's answer, so how can he possibly solve Manchester United's problems?" Diney said.

Mateta joined Crystal Palace in 2022 and has scored just 13 goals in his first 83 games, much like Antony at Selhurst Park. But last season's coaching at Glasner changed his fortunes, with the French striker scoring 28 goals in 46 games.

Asked why he didn't think Mateta was a good fit for United, Dieney said: "First of all, I want to emphasise that I think Mateta is a very good player and he has done really well at Crystal Palace. But I was a good player when I was at Watford, and when I joined the big clubs, the level was completely different. The only thing that works in his favour is that Amorim is now in a formation similar to Crystal Palace, and he can play as a pivot centre-forward in a three-centre-back formation."

Diney added: "I think Palace have a better number 10 than Manchester United at the moment, so he's playing well and that's because the team is good as a whole. Before the start of the season, no one would have said that United should sign Mateta."

On what strikers United should bring in, the former Watford captain analysed: "They need new signings who can improve the squad. Zirkze is more of a number 10 than a centre-forward. He played as a number 10 in Bologna, mainly on the left. Manchester United are trying to force him to play as a number nine and I think they should be looking for the right number nine for Hojlund to learn from him, so it could be a striker who is five or six years his senior. Hojlund is very similar to Liverpool's Darwin Nunez in that they are both good team players, running around and working very hard to do the job assigned by the coach but just can't score. I think they need to improve themselves, sometimes a little bit selfish, not just think about the team, and then they can score."

In United's list of new strikers, Sporting's Dzekereish and Napoli's Osimhen, on loan at Galatasaray, are the two biggest names. However, it was revealed that Dzhecherish had already met with Barcelona, and Arsenal were in contact with Osimhen, and Rajue was worried that such a well-known goalscorer could not be brought in, so he approached a "civilian candidate" such as Mateta. And, as a Premier League player, Mateta doesn't need to re-adapt.