Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United

[Kaos]

Rooney was always a guarantee. The boy was a man.

Generational talent, there was no doubt with him.

There's no one today of the same age bracket Rooney was in when he burst into the scene that possesses that same guaranteed aura about him. The likes of Ferguson and Hojlund are promising raw talents, but still a million miles from the sure thing.

 

[Lyng]

Well if people expect Rooney from our new striker then its going to end with dissapointment.

 

[mav_9me]

Generational talent, there was no doubt with him.

There's no one today of the same age bracket Rooney was in when he burst into the scene that possesses that same guaranteed aura about him. The likes of Ferguson and Hojlund are promising raw talents, but still a million miles from the sure thing.

The closest thing was Mbappe before PSG bought him

 

[Rolaholic]

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[Laurencio]

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From €60M to £86M. Kid's valuation is more volatile than cryptocurrency.

 

[mav_9me]

I like him, in the limited I have seen. But I wouldn't pay 86m £ for him. Doubt PSG would even

 

[RedOrange]

From €60M to £86M. Kid's valuation is more volatile than cryptocurrency.

Wouldn't feel too bad not getting him if he goes for that much, especially if he is a bust.

 

[NLunited]

I like him, in the limited I have seen. But I wouldn't pay 86m £ for him. Doubt PSG would even

It’s possible Atalanta is seeing $$ and upping the price. I could justify paying up to 70 million £ for him, beyond that it doesn’t financially make sense anymore.

 

[Red Royal]

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It’s possible Atalanta is seeing $$ and upping the price. I could justify paying up to 70 million £ for him, beyond that it doesn’t financially make sense anymore.

Yeah, sounds like the usual BS stories coming out just to see if we get desperate. If Altalanta don't play ball we have to walk away not do another Maguire/Anthony mistake

 

[Dazzmondo]

Rooney actually was not as much more proven than Højlund at the time as you make it sound. There is some hindsight bias here.

He came from Everton who were battling relegation in his last season. He scored the same number of goals as Højlund in the league - 9 (and actually it is funny that much of the thread here is people not being impressed by his goalscoring record). Rooney never played in CL. Yes, he scored 4 at Euros (all against relatively weaker teams though) and he played in PL - but he was more risk at the time as it seems now after the fact.

and while we are at it - what has Muani „proven“ much more than Højlund? He has a grand total of 2 goals in European club competitions and 1 international goal in his career, plus one good season a team who finished 7th in Bundesliga (Weghorst had 3 seasons outscoring Muani‘s last season in a similarly ranked team in Bundesliga). he would be almost the same risk as Højlund I‘d say.

Of course, goals/team league and position is far from everything. But I do not understand arguing that Højlund is much more risky than Rooney in 2004 or Muani in 2023.Riskier, yes - but is it much more risky? And saying that he „has not proved anything“ compared to them? Would not say so. And you are literally dismissing him based on simply age („child“) and appearance in your post, come on.

Guess it was only a matter of time before someone actually tried to claim Rooney wasn't miles ahead of Hojlund at this stage. How about instead of just looking at goal stats, we actually watch video footage of the 2 at the time. Rooney's all-round ability was phenomenal, moreso than his goalscoring record. He was obviously going to be a superstar. He could dribble, pass, press and score. He was an all-round incredible talent.

I'd say Muani is similarly more well-rounded than Hojlund despite not necessarily being the clinical goalscorer we'd ideally want. If you want to stick with stats he got 11 assists to go with his 13 goals and in general he's just a more technically impressive player at this time imo. Not sure I'd trust either of them to sort our goalscoring problems but in the absence of many other options I think Muani is closer to the level we'd want.

I do think that one of the reasons we might be prioritising Hojlund is that we're still hoping to get Kane at the end of his contract next year and Muani is probably too good to be 2nd choice in that sort of scenario, whereas Hojlund is younger and raw and could maybe gradually take over from Kane if he develops correctly.

 

[Jacob]

86M

 

[matherto]

Are there examples of his first touch being awful?

 

[bosnian_red]

I don't know why people are comparing hojlund to Rooney. Look at similar players over the past 20 years even, so that is technical and big forwards. Off the top of my head and some googling to see if they were of similar enough heights/remember some names:

• Ibrahimovic
• Lewandowski
• Džeko
• Cavani
• Giroud
• Kane
• Berbatov
• Drogba
• Mario Gomez
• Ruud
• Etc

Literally none of these guys did anything before like 21 or 22. Take out the guys who don't actually have pace, or who aren't hold up play type of CFs and you are left with a tiny list. Most of them didn't even play in a bigger league or for a bigger club before 20/21. Guys like Dzeko and Lewandowski were at Teplice and Lech Poznan still.

We aren't talking about a smaller dynamic CF like Rooney or Mbappe who float around. We aren't talking about a guy who broke out early by just having extreme physical superiority from a young age and knowing how to use that physical superiority early like Haaland or Lukaku (yes Hojlund has good physical attributes, but his play style is much more focused on technical aspects from what I've seen and he's not yet fully taken advantage of or learned how to use his body unlike those guys). He's a type of CF which is a pretty rare breed, a rare mix of attributes but one that also takes a few years to get used to everything. But one every team would love to have. Complete, technical, bigger CF who can be a reference points but with pace and power. I'm not saying he'll turn into those guys, but it's not a surprise at all that he hasn't broken out super early (and he's only 20 anyway FFS) given his style, and his rapid rise over the past year suggests he is rapidly adapting and making a step up.

 

[Dazzmondo]

Are there examples of his first touch being awful?

united one0one has some good youtube videos of him vs different teams so you can judge for yourself. Don't bother with the Futball Karim ones, he just cuts all the bad stuff and only includes the good parts of the match making those videos basically useless. You can compare the performance vs Napoli as an example of how each one showed Hojlund, with the first one showing him struggling much more than the latter.

 

[Strelok]

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That's €100m

Hope it's not true otherwise we should simply walk away. They're getting crazy

 

[RedRonaldo]

I think we should just give up and move on.

Apparently theres no value in this market for any decent striker. Should we just keep Mason afterall?

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

I don't know why people are comparing hojlund to Rooney. Look at similar players over the past 20 years even, so that is technical and big forwards. Off the top of my head and some googling to see if they were of similar enough heights/remember some names:

• Ibrahimovic
• Lewandowski
• Džeko
• Cavani
• Giroud
• Kane
• Berbatov
• Drogba
• Mario Gomez
• Ruud
• Etc

Literally none of these guys did anything before like 21 or 22. Take out the guys who don't actually have pace, or who aren't hold up play type of CFs and you are left with a tiny list. Most of them didn't even play in a bigger league or for a bigger club before 20/21. Guys like Dzeko and Lewandowski were at Teplice and Lech Poznan still.

We aren't talking about a smaller dynamic CF like Rooney or Mbappe who float around. We aren't talking about a guy who broke out early by just having extreme physical superiority from a young age and knowing how to use that physical superiority early like Haaland or Lukaku (yes Hojlund has good physical attributes, but his play style is much more focused on technical aspects from what I've seen and he's not yet fully taken advantage of or learned how to use his body unlike those guys). He's a type of CF which is a pretty rare breed, a rare mix of attributes but one that also takes a few years to get used to everything. But one every team would love to have. Complete, technical, bigger CF who can be a reference points but with pace and power. I'm not saying he'll turn into those guys, but it's not a surprise at all that he hasn't broken out super early (and he's only 20 anyway FFS) given his style, and his rapid rise over the past year suggests he is rapidly adapting and making a step up.

Good rationale.

 

[Castia]

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Can you imagine if this happens it will be a massive failure on our part

You just know we don’t have a backup plan either.

 

[Andycoleno9]

Remember when fee was 40+20 mil. In euros. Ah, those were good times.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

It’s 60m not 86.

 

[OrcaFat]

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Yes a true nightmare. What on earth will we do? What a load of bollocks.

The guy is a promising young player “worth” about £50m. There may be a lack of alternatives but there’s surely no way anybody pays north of about £60m for him. Especially not PSG.

 

[Idxomer]

It’s possible Atalanta is seeing $$ and upping the price. I could justify paying up to 70 million £ for him, beyond that it doesn’t financially make sense anymore.

It's just the dailymail putting all the clickbait numbers and reports in one article.

 

[roonster09]

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[dinostar77]

Not really been keeping up to speed with things this summer. Can’t be arsed reading through 157 pages.

Whats the consensus here on this guy? I’m not blown away but willing to give him a go after the Weghorst debacle.

Watch the tifo i r l video of him. They say he a worth signing.

 

[Chief123]

Can you imagine if this happens it will be a massive failure on our part

You just know we don’t have a backup plan either.

Oh how foolish of you. We have Weghorst as back up.

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

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[Faetheshire86]

Is this new €100m asking price based off their manager saying that he "hopes the club" values him at 80, 90, 100 million? Surely that isn't being used as a credible source of Atalanta's stance? I'm pretty sure if it was, this deal would be dead in the water.

 

[Marcelinho87]

Not really been keeping up to speed with things this summer. Can’t be arsed reading through 157 pages.

Whats the consensus here on this guy? I’m not blown away but willing to give him a go after the Weghorst debacle.

Consensus is the caf thinks it knows best again.

EtH wants him, I'm game.

 

[Hester_manc]

If we gave 50 mill for Martial 8 years ago, then 60 mill for Højlund is not that crazy.

 

[Widow]

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[UnitedSofa]

Can you imagine if this happens it will be a massive failure on our part

You just know we don’t have a backup plan either.

For christ sakes we definitely do.

The CAF has this weird obsession of holding the club to such a ridiculously high standard but the consequently shitting on the club at every opportunity when things don’t go our way.

We didn’t get Hojlund and we’re so shit we haven’t got a back up

 

[Dominos]

Watch the tifo i r l video of him. They say he a worth signing.

Out of interest, do tifo ever give a negative review of players in these types of videos? They always seem to put a positive spin on everything and everyone.

 

[Castia]

For christ sakes we definitely do.

The CAF has this weird obsession of holding the club to such a ridiculously high standard but the consequently shitting on the club at every opportunity when things don’t go our way.

We didn’t get Hojlund and we’re so shit we haven’t got a back up

Oh yeah because our transfer dealings have been great in recent years

Wonder if we’ll be back in for Arnautovic again?

I love the club but transfer dealings and even identifying targets has been a complete nightmare for years.

 

[DJ_21]

I thought the asking price was 70, 80, 90?

€60m seems reasonable

It’s only 70,80,90 if we want him.

 

[Dazzmondo]

Out of interest, do tifo ever give a negative review of players in these types of videos? They always seem to put a positive spin on everything and everyone.

Remember everyone suddenly thinking Ruben Neves was the perfect signing for Utd after the video they made about him Now he's in the Saudi league after years of no big club deeming him good enough to sign. I shudder at the thought of us signing him over Cas

 

[dinostar77]

Out of interest, do tifo ever give a negative review of players in these types of videos? They always seem to put a positive spin on everything and everyone.

Yes they do, i recall they said lavia isnt ready for a top 6 club and needed more development time and lots of game time to work on his many weaknesses in his game. Thats one example.

 

[OrcaFat]

Remember everyone suddenly thinking Ruben Neves was the perfect signing for Utd after the video they made about him Now he's in the Saudi league after years of no big club deeming him good enough to sign. I shudder at the thought of us signing him over Cas

Hey, anyone who watches these videos has to know that they are a bit of fun for those who have not really watched a player.

We saw Neves many many times in the prem. He’s a very good player and would have done fine for us, regardless of the “videos”. That he’s going to Saudi is as much about what they’re paying him as anything else. In the past Wolves didn’t really want to sell him unless they got silly money.

 

[UnitedSofa]

Oh yeah because our transfer dealings have been great in recent years

Wonder if we’ll be back in for Arnautovic again?

I love the club but transfer dealings and even identifying targets has been a complete nightmare for years.

Not denying that, the Glazers for however shite they’ve been, 99% of the time they’ve released funds. It’s just been A) too slow to release the funds and B) we’ve bought the wrong players. £1Bn on players and nothing to show for it.

I think now, we have the right transfer team in place, it’s going to go much better. 2 signings for the US tour, that’s basically unheard of & potentially a third all early august. In previous years that would be a week or two before start of the season or once the season started

 

[mazhar13]

Anyway, its always the case with every transfer -- Ask for a high price, buying club goes lower.

Then they compromise on the add-ons or payment structure -- but not before the selling club introduces/leaks a potential buyer right in the last minute. Not sure why people are surprised by this. Happens almost in every transfer.

In this case, the prospective buyer (i.e. PSG) leaked out this info rather than Atalanta. Romano reported on PSG's interest earlier, and using his Tweets to point this out would make sense. However, whenever Loïc Tanzi reports about PSG, then he gets that info directly from the club, not from Italy.

Anyways, PSG haven't even talked to the club let alone agree to personal terms with Højlund, so we are way ahead of them at the moment.

 

[Dazzmondo]

Hey, anyone who watches these videos has to know that they are a bit of fun for those who have not really watched a player.

We saw Neves many many times in the prem. He’s a very good player and would have done fine for us, regardless of the “videos”. That he’s going to Saudi is as much about what they’re paying him as anything else. In the past Wolves didn’t really want to sell him unless they got silly money.

The videos are fun sure but too often people take them as gospel. You even have that Leeds fan criticising Casemiro in a few videos and suddenly Cas started getting a lot more criticism on here (even before he genuinely had a short dip in form). I've seen Neves loads of times and maintained for years that he's not good enough for a top 4 club. I think he would have been a really poor signing for us and I'm just glad we didn't end up signing him. His level has always been a really good, standout player for a midtable club but not good enough for a top 4 team imo.

Anyway, main point is that these videos should be taken with a bit more of a pinch of salt than they generally are. The poster I responded to is 100% correct that they nearly always try to say the player is a good signing, regardless of what the stats might otherwise suggest. Their recent video on Tonali is an example of that. Whether or not he does do well at Newcastle, all the stats they looked at suggested a different conclusion than what they came to at the end of the video.