Odion Ighalo happy to take pay cut to join Manchester United

Odion Ighalo has revealed that he took a pay cut to join Manchester United. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was desperate to sign a striker in the January transfer window and United ended up signing Ighalo on a loan deal from Shanghai Shenhua on deadline day. United are reportedly paying Ighalo £100,000 a week for his short stint at United, and the Nigeria international admits he had no hesitation when asked to take a pay cut in order to secure his move to Old Trafford. ‘It was very dramatic,’ Ighalo told MUTV.

My agent called me the day before and said Man United. I would love to go.

A few other clubs had shown interest, I said please, just pick United, if it’s going to be possible. ‘At 11pm in Shanghai, my agent called me [to say] that United want to do the deal, so I woke up that night and started looking for a translator to go to the directors’ room and hit his door and all that. ‘My agent wants to speak to you, United are coming for me, you have to make this happen and all that you know. So they started talking and discussing. I didn’t sleep throughout that night, because it was going to end at 7am, Shanghai time, and the transfer [window] is going to close there. ‘So, from 11pm, there was paperwork, negotiating and all that, for the loan deal and all that, so we are talking and other teams are calling them, wanting me, but I told my agent that this is what I want. I want to come here.