Man Utd face uncomfortable Mason Greenwood reality despite Bryan Mbeumo joy

Manchester United must face an uncomfortable truth about Mason Greenwood despite finally hitting their stride in the Premier League. The Red Devils are enjoying their strongest run of form under Ruben Amorim, having won each of their last three games. They added to their unbeaten streak on Saturday with a hard-fought victory over Brighton, surviving a late fightback from the Seagulls to claim all three points.

Much of their recent improvement has been down to the impact of their summer signings. Bryan Mbeumo has emerged as the pick of the bunch, having played a major role in turning United's fortunes around. He opened the scoring against Liverpool inside the first two minutes before grabbing a crucial brace against Brighton. Mbeumo has looked unstoppable in the final third and is quickly becoming an indispensable asset for his new club.

Even though the Cameroon international has enjoyed a dream start to life at Old Trafford, things could have panned out very differently if Greenwood was still on United's books.

The former Red Devils striker has been scoring for fun at Marseille, the club he joined permanently in the summer of 2024. He has bagged six goals in just eight league games, with four of those coming in the victory over Le Havre earlier this month.

Greenwood was regarded as one of Europe's hottest prospects after breaking through United's academy and making his mark at senior level. If he was still at the club today, there is little doubt that he would be starting every week given his incredible form.

His career ground to a halt in 2022, when he was charged with attempted rape, assault and controlling and coercive behaviour. The following year, those charges were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service.

United went on to conduct their own internal investigation, after which they decided to sell Greenwood in response to backlash from fans, women's support groups and members of staff.

In a different timeline, there is every chance that he would be leading the charge for United at present. They might not have even needed to sign Mbeumo if the former England international was scoring for them instead of Marseille.

That is not to say that United were wrong to get rid of Greenwood, given the difficult situation they found themselves in at the time.

They are getting on just fine without him and Mbeumo will be hoping to deliver more goals as the Red Devils seek a return to the Premier League's upper reaches.

He was praised by Amorim following the victory over Brighton, with the United boss saying: "He's a working machine. He's so good in transitions. He's improving when we are organising the final third.

"The connection with Amad is really hard to beat these two guys because they change positions. They are really fast, they are good in one against one.

"My role [in signing Mbeumo] was as a manager to explain what I want from him but it was more the club and you guys. We can struggle a lot but it's Manchester United.

"When Manchester United is there and when we feel that this player wants to come here, no matter what, no matter what the position, no matter if it's Champions League or not, we also give everything to bring these kind of guys and that was the case."