Former Manchester United man Keith Gillespie has told The Transfer Tavern that the club need to sign a striker who can score 25 goals a season if they want to challenge at the top end of the Premier League.

The club are currently second in the table but they sit eight points behind leaders Manchester City.

Both Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford have scored 20 or more goals this season but Gillespie believes that the club need an out-and-out striker who can play alongside them and forge a fearsome trio at the top of the pitch.

Indeed, he refers back to Ruud van Nistelrooy, who scored 150 goals for United, and Andy Cole, who netted 121, as players who could consistently put the ball in the back of the net.

Indeed, United are likely to lose Edinson Cavani this summer, per reports, with the Uruguay international likely to move back to South America, per reports, leaving a void that will need to be filled.

Speaking exclusively to TT, Gillespie said: “I think that’s what Man United have needed for a few years.

“You think about United’s strikers of the past, you think about Van Nistelrooy and Andy Cole, players like that, real instinctive goalscorers, who just come alive in the box.

“United have got a lot of players who contribute goals, you think of Rashford, Fernandes especially, if you add in a striker who’s going to get you 20 or 25 goals a season, then you really can challenge.”