Manchester United were reportedly very close to clinching the transfer of Liam Delap for just £30m this summer, only for him to end up at Chelsea instead.

Delap snubbed Man Utd in favour of a move to Stamford Bridge, meaning the Red Devils had to move on to other striker targets instead.

In the end, they were forced to pay considerably more for a new striker, bringing in Benjamin Sesko for a fee reported as £74m by BBC Sport.

According to the Daily Mail, a deal had previously been 90% done to sign Delap for less than half that price, which would have freed up considerable funds for the club to also make an important signing in midfield.

Liam Delap in action for Chelsea in pre-season(Photo by Richard Pelham/Getty Images)

How are this summer’s striker signings performing?

United will perhaps live to regret missing out on Delap, though he’s been a bit unfortunate not to be able to make more of an impact during his time with Chelsea so far.

The 22-year-old has just nine appearances and one goal for the Blues so far, and is currently out with a long-term injury.

Sesko isn’t faring that much better with United, though, scoring only two goals in his first eight appearances so far.

Here’s a look at how a number of the most high-profile striker signings of the summer are performing so far for their new clubs…

It will be interesting to monitor these numbers as the season goes on after so much spending on big-name centre-forwards ahead of this campaign.

So far, none are looking particularly exciting, with the likes of Erling Haaland and Harry Kane continuing to show themselves to be the very finest finishers in world football.

It’s hard to find quality like that on the market very often, but who knows how differently things might’ve gone if United had been able to sign Delap and a top midfielder to go alongside him?