flourish

Whatever the decision on United’s striker dilemma, there can be little argument the addition of Mbeumo – alongside Cunha – strengthens their firepower.

Only Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Newcastle’s Alexander Isak and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland scored more than his 20 Premier League goals last season.

It was, though, the first time he has reached double figures for a top-flight club, and his expected goals (xG) statistic of 12.3 – which he outperformed by 7.7 goals – is something that would be difficult to repeat.

In the past five Premier League seasons, just 14 players have overperformed their xG by five goals or more.

Sutton said: “He has done well at Brentford but playing for Manchester United is very different. With respect to Brentford, there is no great expectation there. At United, he will be expected to perform straight away.

“He has experience, he is a good finisher and his versatility is a big positive – he can play as a central striker as well as on the wing, cutting inside off the right on to his left foot.

“But he has had one very good season where his numbers were very good, so the question is whether he can repeat that.”

The Cameroon international is not being bought just for his goals, though.

Mbeumo prefers to play on the right behind a striker – with Cunha expected to feature on the left – but also has the versatility to play centrally, offering another solution to the striker problem.

He topped the list for touches per 90 minutes for players who scored more than 15 goals last season – showing his involvement in play – and ranks as one of the best ball carriers in the league, consistently with an effective end product.

He was 17th on the list of top assisters – with seven – but in expected assists he led the way in the Premier League with 9.3 xA.

Alongside Cunha’s creativity, that can only be good news for whoever is chosen to play the central striker role.

“Consistency in those forward positions is what United are striving for, because they have not had it with, say, Alejandro Garnacho or Antony,” said Sutton.

“They are maybe thinking an older, more experienced player, who is more reliable, is what they need. That’s Mbeumo – he fits into Ruben Amorim’s system and he fits the bill as proven Premier League quality too.

“Amorim wants a harmonious camp as well as a consistent performer, not someone who is a 3/10 one week and a 9/10 the next.

“That’s what Manchester United have really been lacking and the numbers Mbeumo provided could be really important. That is the part of the jigsaw they have got to really solve if they want to be challenging at the top end of the table.”

There have, of course, been many high-profile footballers who have made the move to Saudi Arabia in recent years.

Five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo is perhaps the most famous of them, but there’s also been Neymar, N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez, who continued to be selected by their respective national teams after making the moves.

Indeed, Toney could come up against his Al-Ahli team-mate Edouard Mendy when England play Senegal next week.

Looking through the list of squads there are plenty of recognisable names playing in the Saudi Pro League but, despite that, the overall standard of the league is perceived as quite low.

In Opta’s most recent Power Rankings the Saudi Pro League was ranked as just the 29th-strongest in the world, just behind the Ecuador Liga Pro.

“Toney has referenced it himself publicly that he has been very surprised by the standard for football in Saudi Arabia,” Gulf-based sports journalist John McAuley, who covers the Saudi Pro League, told BBC Sport.

“It is a lot higher than he expected and obviously that is because of the influx of proper international players coming into the league now.

“Saudi always had a very high standing in Asian football – Al-Hilal are the record four-time winners of the Asian Champions League.

“The level of local players is still very good but when you think of the defenders Toney is up against, he is still playing against Aymeric Laporte at Al-Nassr, Kalidou Koulibaly at Al-Hilal, Danilo Pereira, who came from PSG to Al-Ittihad – so he is still playing against European standard players.”

Regardless of the perception of the league he is playing in, there’s no doubt Toney arrived at this England camp as a player in form, having enjoyed a brilliant scoring run in the second half of the season to help Al-Ahli become champions of Asia.

“He ended up with a run of something like 19 goals in his last 19 league games, finishing two goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the race for the Golden Boot,” McAuley added.

“The huge thing, and something that really integrated him with the fans, is he played a key role in Al-Ahli winning the Asian Champions League Elite for the first time.”

“Making the transition, the first moving to Saudi, it was a big one,” Toney told 5 live.

“Obviously, people are going to think ‘how is he going to cope and how is he going to be?’. As you can see from the stats, they speak for themselves.

“It’s been a good season with winning a trophy also. It was a big thing for me, I haven’t won many trophies, but being part of that one was a big moment.”