Despite being a regular in the Norway set-up at just 20-years old the former Preston and Hull City loanee is nowhere near the first-team at Old Trafford; with Newcastle United reportedly interested could a Premier League side benefit from Manchester United’s unnecessary wealth of striking talent.
There is little secret in Manchester United’s current abundance of striking talent. Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez, Danny Welbeck occupy the first-team berths and with Federico Macheda, Bebe and Angelo Henriquez also in reserve it will be surprising to hear that another young striking talent is making a claim for a more important role in the United set-up.
Last night saw 20-year-old Joshua King score his first international goal for Norway, adding gloss to their victory over Cyprus in FIFA World Cup qualifying.
Considering he has only made the one senior appearance for Manchester United, against Wolves in the League Cup in 2009 it is an oddity to see him as a fledging international. Since that appearance it has been an all too familiar tale for the injury-prone striker who has been compared to former Aston Villa striker John Carew, although that comparison is based mainly on the two both hailing from Gambian roots.
He has experienced three loan deals in his last three seasons at Old Trafford with deals at Preston North End, Borussia Monchengladbach and Hull City. Each had their varying levels of success as at Preston and Hull he faired OK while his time in Germany was hampered by injury and he left halfway through the deal to complete his recovery.
But it is his international form that has garnered the most attention in recent months as he impressed on his debut against Iceland in September before his game-winning turn against the Cypriots in the most recent leg of qualifiers.
However it seems United may have to prepare for life without the talent;
“I have set Christmas as a deadline. If I haven’t got more playing time by then, I will consider moving to another club.’’
It is understandable for the youngster, who turns 21 in January, to want to move on from United and if we are being brutally honest there is little suggestion on our part that Sir Alex should drop RVP for Joshua King, that would be a bit bold.
But it would be good to see him stay in England something King agrees with;
“I would prefer to stay in England…’’
But if not he has only one option in his homeland;
… in case I do return to Norway, Molde is the only option.”
There he could be reunited with former team-mate Magnus Eikrem and the man who first spotted him as a United scout, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. However with rumours persisting of the pair potentially leaving Molde themselves remaining in England seems a genuine possibility and as he is now considered a regular in the Norway squad many teams across the country would surely want to snap him up.
Newcastle United have been linked with a bid for the lad who wants to play in the Premier League.
So would you want your club to take a punt on Joshua King?
image: © http://www.flickr.com/photos/birdies-perch/
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