Manchester United’s summer signing Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko has been the subject of early scrutiny after his \u00a374 million ($100.2 million) move from RB Leipzig. The 22-year-old has arrived in England at a time when several other high-profile forwards have hit the ground running, with Liverpool\u2019s Hugo Ekitik\u00e9, Arsenal\u2019s Viktor Gy\u00f6keres and Chelsea\u2019s Jo\u00e3o Pedro all making goalscoring starts elsewhere in the Premier League.<\/p>\n
That context has intensified expectation around \u0160e\u0161ko, but former United defender Rio Ferdinand has urged restraint. \u201cHe needs to get up to speed with the Premier League and that\u2019s going to take at least a month before he can even start thinking he\u2019s in a good enough position to put his best foot forward,\u201d Ferdinand told the Daily Mail. \u201cListen, he\u2019s a young kid. He\u2019s got huge potential, that\u2019s not in doubt. But potential and proving it are two different things. It wouldn\u2019t be right to say whether he can do it or not, time will be the biggest teller of all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ferdinand\u2019s comments underline a common view among former players and pundits that adaptation to the Premier League can take time, especially for a young striker joining a club under significant pressure to deliver immediate returns.<\/p>\n
That pressure has been compounded by criticism from another ex-United forward. Louis Saha has predicted \u0160e\u0161ko will struggle in his debut season with the Red Devils, pointing to Manchester United\u2019s lack of midfield signings over the summer as a factor that could hinder his integration and goalscoring chances.<\/p>\n
\u0160e\u0161ko\u2019s confidence may also have been affected by his recent international outings. During the September break the striker failed to score as Slovenia drew with Sweden and suffered defeat to Switzerland in 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying. For now, both club and player will be hoping that a single goal at Old Trafford or in the league can alter the narrative and accelerate his settling-in period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ferdinand calls for patience as \u0160e\u0161ko adjusts after \u00a374m move; international blanks dent confidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2680,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,179,969],"tags":[317],"class_list":["post-2681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-benjamin-sesko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}