Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United

[FreakyJim]

Weren't we supposed to turn the page this summer and start being sensible/not overpay for players? I thought I read that somewhere at the start of the summer.

Three signings later and I fail to see what's different. We're being bent over and fecked like always.

 

[Teja]

Ended up paying £60m then.

Mount £55m
Onana £43m.
Hojlund £60m.

£158m.

Thall be us done, until we start selling the likes of Henderson, Maguire and McT.

Feel like the DDG wages cover for a lot of the Onana transfer if you amortize both over 5y. Onana's on 100k p/w (5.2M p/y). DDG even in the best case would've been on double that. (200k p/w or 10.4M p/y).

If you spread those out over 5y (assuming both signed 5y contracts), the DDG transfer was a total of 52M. The Onana transfer is 43M fee + 26M wages = 69M. Sure there's a 17M difference but not a lot there. And that's assuming DDG takes that large of a pay cut.

 

[Tarrou]

He's a bit raw but I think he'll feel like a breath of fresh air leading the line for us after watching Martial mope about for years and Rashford who isn't suited to the role. For me it'll be a similar feeling to going from DDG to Onana, albeit not as ready-made.

He does all the right things. He might not be ready to be automatic first choice but I think he's a great option to come in and give us 20 starts and something off the bench.

 

[Hammondo]

but in Fergie's day we could rock up at Villa, Brentford, Fulham and take their best players for reasonable fees. Take Saha for example, who we got in January for what 13m? despite being Fulham's top scorer. Imagine going to Brentford in January and asking for Toney for like £40million, they'd just laugh at us. We'd be looking at double that for Toney, and in the face of that Fergie would likely find another solution.

Fergie moved with the times better than anyone and he'd do the same today. You can't apply his transfer strategy logic to todays market. I agree he'd go for Kane but Spurs would ask for £150million and then what? He'd tell them to feck off.

He would look abroad tbh.

 

[Abraxas]

Weren't we supposed to turn the page this summer and start being sensible/not overpay for players? I thought I read that somewhere at the start of the summer.

Three signings later and I fail to see what's different. We're being bent over and fecked like always.

I wouldn't say there's anything ridiculous overall.

This one is very expensive, no doubt about it but I think it probably balances out because 40 on a world class keeper is not to be sniffed at.

Mount fee was absolutely bog standard.

 

[Berbasbullet]

Weren't we supposed to turn the page this summer and start being sensible/not overpay for players? I thought I read that somewhere at the start of the summer.

Three signings later and I fail to see what's different. We're being bent over and fecked like always.

We weren't bent over backwards for Onana and not really for Mount. This is just how expensive players are in 2023.

 

[Utd heap]

People getting all arsey and upset about £5m here and there for transfer fees will never cease to bemuse me.

 

[Tarrou]

Weren't we supposed to turn the page this summer and start being sensible/not overpay for players? I thought I read that somewhere at the start of the summer.

Three signings later and I fail to see what's different. We're being bent over and fecked like always.

the first two were pretty standard fees in todays market

this one is inflated due to the striker market and how desperate we are, I don't think there's much we could do about it

 

[OsloRed]

We weren't bent over backwards for Onana and not really for Mount. This is just how expensive players are in 2023.

Yup. I think we just have to come to terms with the market and realise that 60 million punds isn't that much for a striker with potential these days. Even the days of Pogba for 86 million seem far gone.

 

[Tom Van Persie]

Weren't we supposed to turn the page this summer and start being sensible/not overpay for players? I thought I read that somewhere at the start of the summer.

Three signings later and I fail to see what's different. We're being bent over and fecked like always.

The striker market this summer has gone crazy and Hojlund is rated as one of the top talents in Europe so of course we're going to have to overpay a little bit. I fail to see how we've been bent over on any of the signings we've made this summer.

 

[Judas]

People getting all arsey and upset about £5m here and there for transfer fees will never cease to bemuse me.

It’s such a strange thing to care about and get all bent out of shape over.

 

[buchansleftleg]

I’m trying to get excited and I just found his Finland game, looked amazing there, the movement for the first goal especially was amazing and something not seen by a United striker since probably RVP. What a difference to a statue Martial he will be. For those who haven’t seen this highlights yet:

Brave, bold, strong, chasing down defenders and goalies. A constant threat. He is unstoppable...he is the UnMartial.

 

[Zlatans Knee]

Please please please be closer to a Haaland than a Darwin Nunez

 

[Rhyme Animal]

but in Fergie's day we could rock up at Villa, Brentford, Fulham and take their best players for reasonable fees. Take Saha for example, who we got in January for what 13m? despite being Fulham's top scorer. Imagine going to Brentford in January and asking for Toney for like £40million, they'd just laugh at us. We'd be looking at double that for Toney, and in the face of that Fergie would likely find another solution.

Fergie moved with the times better than anyone and he'd do the same today. You can't apply his transfer strategy logic to todays market.

Maybe not, but you can easily see what kind of strikers he went for when even medium fees were applied - and those were proven (very often PL proven) strikers who were ready to step in with immediate effect.

His other striker signings were punts, which he loved on the cheap-ish and NEVER relied on as the main CF.

There’s nothing wrong with pointing out that SAF would never sign this lad for this amount and to be Utd’s first choice CF at this point. It doesn’t even mean that Højlund will fail.

But for a number of fans who grew up with Fergie’s approach to CF signings - which was basically exemplary - it does stand out as a very, very big risk given how this squad NEEDS a ready to rock CF right now.

Also, SAF’s approach with CFs wasn’t dated, it was way ahead of it’s time, and I would hope that ETH was looking to SAF’s history of Utd CFs as he could quite clearly learn a lot there as Fergie was a master in that area, and it’s clearly an area that isn’t ETH’s strongest.

 

[Judas]

Maybe not, but you can easily see what kind of strikers he went for when even medium fees were applied - and those were proven (very often PL proven) strikers who were ready to step in with immediate effect.

His other striker signings were punts, which he loved on the cheap-ish and NEVER relied on as the main CF.

There’s nothing wrong with pointing out that SAF would never sign this lad for this amount and to be Utd’s first choice CF at this point. It doesn’t even mean that Højlund will fail.

But for a number of fans who grew up with Fergie’s approach to CF signings - which was basically exemplary - it does stand out as a very, very big risk given how this squad NEEDS a ready to rock CF right now.

Also, SAF’s approach with CFs wasn’t dated, it was way ahead of it’s time, and I would hope that ETH was looking to SAF’s history of Utd CFs as he could quite clearly learn a lot there as Fergie was a master in that area, and it’s clearly an area that isn’t ETH’s strongest.

Move on, for your own sake. He retired in a different era.

 

[Utd heap]

It’s such a strange thing to care about and get all bent out of shape over.

Yeah, I can sympathise with an interest in the general fee - as obviously all teams work to budgets and it effects future business etc etc. But getting all upset when you think it's about £5m more than you've made up in your own head....weird.

 

[Adnan]

I'm not stating we shouldn't play out from the back, but what I am saying is had we had a striker last season worth their salt we would have had more points on the board judging by the amount of big chances we created and failed to capitalise on.

There's more than one way of dealing with a high press, and just because a team plays out nicely from the back doesn't always lead to that team creating chances.
Most chances come from opposition mistakes, pressuring high up the pitch, which really has no relation on playing out from the back.

The teams who scored the most goals in the league were without doubt those teams who played out from the back and also played with a higher line. That's a fact. It makes a difference when a team can play the game in the opponent's half by committing a high volume of players in the attacking third, which creates the opportunity to score a lot of goals.

I agree if we had a striker we likely would've scored more goals. But just having a striker on his own wouldn't have eradicated the problems we saw at the back against teams who pressed us high as a collective and also retained possession better than us. That defensive line was too low for a ten Hag team. Our problem is against those top teams who are not only press well as a collective from the front but also retain possession better than us.

There's absolutely more than one way of dealing with a high press but we didn't seem to have more than one way of dealing with high pressure against the better high pressing teams. And that's why I'm saying that having the ability to play out of a press rather than hit and hope against the best pressing teams and ceding possession constantly isn't sustainable.

Playing out from the back and having the ability to transition quickly whilst also controlling/containing the opponent's transition makes a team well rounded rather than being predictable. And we were predictable against the top teams last season, and to close the gap further, attempts have to be made to control the game better in the first phase rather than surrender the ball by hitting it long from the GK. And ten Hag is a coach who wants his team to play the game in the opponent's half and hence building the play out from the back is a key component of his play style.

 

[dinostar77]

Glad we are getting him. God knows what his ceiling will be. We missed out on a young benzema so if he has a career half as good he will be a great signing.

 

[Tarrou]

Maybe not, but you can easily see what kind of strikers he went for when even medium fees were applied - and those were proven (very often PL proven) strikers who were ready to step in with immediate effect.

His other striker signings were punts, which he loved on the cheap-ish and NEVER relied on as the main CF.

There’s nothing wrong with pointing out that SAF would never sign this lad for this amount and to be Utd’s first choice CF at this point. It doesn’t even mean that Højlund will fail.

But for a number of fans who grew up with Fergie’s approach to CF signings - which was basically exemplary - it does stand out as a very, very big risk given how this squad NEEDS a ready to rock CF right now.

Also, SAF’s approach with CFs wasn’t dated, it was way ahead of it’s time, and I would hope that ETH was looking to SAF’s history of Utd CFs as he could quite clearly learn a lot there as Fergie was a master in that area, and it’s clearly an area that isn’t ETH’s strongest.

yeah I wasn't suggesting there was anything wrong with pointing it out. Just saying, the game and market is so different now we have no idea what Fergie would be doing. One thing is for certain though, we'd have never gotten into this mess to begin with! We'd be buying from a position of strength, like City, which makes life 10x easier.

 

[Red in STL]

Fergie would NEVER have spunked 65m quid or it’s equivalent back in the day on this guy at this point in his career. It was exactly the kind of transfer he loathed.

I’m not saying he would or wouldn’t have liked the player, but Hojlund for SAF would’ve absolutely been a side punt - as he should be now.

He not only wouldn’t have signed him, but he probably would’ve publicly declared the price ridiculous knowing Fergie.

Fergie would’ve gone in uber hard for Kane and failing that a Watkins, Toney, Ihanacho, Mitro signing to tide us over.

Errrm he did exactly that with Rooney

 

[Abraxas]

Maybe not, but you can easily see what kind of strikers he went for when even medium fees were applied - and those were proven (very often PL proven) strikers who were ready to step in with immediate effect.

His other striker signings were punts, which he loved on the cheap-ish and NEVER relied on as the main CF.

There’s nothing wrong with pointing out that SAF would never sign this lad for this amount and to be Utd’s first choice CF at this point. It doesn’t even mean that Højlund will fail.

But for a number of fans who grew up with Fergie’s approach to CF signings - which was basically exemplary - it does stand out as a very, very big risk given how this squad NEEDS a ready to rock CF right now.

Also, SAF’s approach with CFs wasn’t dated, it was way ahead of it’s time, and I would hope that ETH was looking to SAF’s history of Utd CFs as he could quite clearly learn a lot there as Fergie was a master in that area, and it’s clearly an area that isn’t ETH’s strongest.

Fergie's approach to transfers wasn't dated but I think the wider point is that using him as a reference point is dated because he operated in a completely different landscape and that extends across everything we do.

Different market economics, the club had a different relative economic strength and could hoover up PL talent with absolute ease, different tactics where wide forwards weren't so crucial to goalscoring so there were more viable targets than today where teams play differently and the striking talent is different. This has been a theme of the summer where if it isn't Kane then it's been extremely hard to identify the top level, out and out 9s.

I mean ultimately Fergie played 2 up top for a large portion of his career and I don't think we'd use that as a barometer of what we should do because we know football is completely different, and I don't think his transfer strategy is any more relevant than that would be due to the above changes. At some point we should just accept that Fergie's time has come and gone, we've got a brilliant modern manager.

 

[zaafi]

yeah I wasn't suggesting there was anything wrong with pointing it out. Just saying, the game and market is so different now we have no idea what Fergie would be doing. One thing is for certain though, we'd have never gotten into this mess to begin with! We'd be buying from a position of strength, like City, which makes life 10x easier.

To be honest, he left the club in a shambles and didn't bother replacing the midfield

 

[UnofficialDevil]

You must be fun at parties.
it’s unbelievable how negative some of you are. Kane is not available,I don’t how many times this has be repeated on this thread. Osimhen is another unrealistic target. All the other striker targets are just as risky as this kid,and it seems this is who the gaffer wants.
I’m sorry people like you are ruining the cafe with your unnecessary moaning at everything the club does.

Such a childish quote to start of your reply. Ruining your cafe experience Sorry about that. But I'm entitled to have a opinion. Don't have to glorify everything the club does.

 

[Rolaholic]

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[UnsungJisung]

As a Dane I am very confident about this guy. We haven’t produced a striker for ages, but I believe in this guy. He is fast as hell and he shoots like a horse. He is good with the head as well. Would recommend you guys to watch the highlights of Denmark-Finland and the away game in Kazakhstan. I believe this kid is what we need. Can’t wait to see him. As a Brondby fan I also enjoy the idea of FC Copenhagen doing such bad business. I’ve always seen some light in this guy, but his development is still out of this world.

 

[Ted Lasso]

Mount and Hojlund exactly the type of signings we haven't been making that we needed to do more of. Not the big superstar names but the kind of players our fans cry about after they've made a step up elsewhere and are doing well. And at that point all the same naysayers now would be feeling like the prices were really great deals.

 

[V.O.]

I’m trying to get excited and I just found his Finland game, looked amazing there, the movement for the first goal especially was amazing and something not seen by a United striker since probably RVP. What a difference to a statue Martial he will be. For those who haven’t seen this highlights yet:

That second goal is the one that gets me interested. Looks like we might finally have a striker who would 'break his nose to score a goal', or whatever it was Ole was going on about.

No way in hell Martial, Rashford or Sancho are putting their head in there to score that one.

 

[saivet]

Okay, I'm now going to invest. Any good youtube videos of his game (ideally balanced)?

 

[tidraKS]

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Tweeting random stuff just to make some news

 

[horsechoker]

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A 28 year old Ibrahimovic would cost £100m these days, if not more

 

[Brightonian]

I’m trying to get excited and I just found his Finland game, looked amazing there, the movement for the first goal especially was amazing and something not seen by a United striker since probably RVP. What a difference to a statue Martial he will be. For those who haven’t seen this highlights yet:

I'm not sure we've had a player with the absolute hunger, explosiveness and sharpness in the box to score both those first two goals in one game since Chicharito.

 

[macheda14]

@Solius

Great video again. His poor aerial ability in terms of fighting for long balls is a bit worrying. One reason Inter were so good with Onana is their forwards could utilise his long passing so well. Although that feels like it’s something that can be taught/learnt. He just needs to commit a bit more.

 

[Zen]

Fergie would NEVER have spunked 65m quid or it’s equivalent back in the day on this guy at this point in his career. It was exactly the kind of transfer he loathed.

I’m not saying he would or wouldn’t have liked the player, but Hojlund for SAF would’ve absolutely been a side punt - as he should be now.

He not only wouldn’t have signed him, but he probably would’ve publicly declared the price ridiculous knowing Fergie.

Fergie would’ve gone in uber hard for Kane and failing that a Watkins, Toney, Ihanacho, Mitro signing to tide us over.

I mean... what were Nani and Anderson? Don't be fooled by a price tag, inflation in the transfer market is far greater than real inflation. Anderson was definitely a top 5 transfer that summer and Nani around about the top 10... which is give or take where Holjund will sit, if not lower by the end of the window. Phil Jones is another I'd almost certainly throw in as a similar transfer too.

 

[DJ_21]

Very happy that we’ve almost completed the signings of every single 1st choice target of ETH.

 

[Adnan]

Agree with everything. The only thing missing is the CM to progress the ball. Which is why I was surprised with the choice of Mount as the no.8. I guess the idea is using the others (LB, Licha) to progress the ball from the back. Hopefully it works.

I agree and hence a player like Amrabat could well be a very interesting signing for us. Hopefully we can get this deal done with Atalanta and move on to signing a first phase midfielder.

 

[V.O.]

Great video again. His poor aerial ability in terms of fighting for long balls is a bit worrying. One reason Inter were so good with Onana is their forwards could utilise his long passing so well. Although that feels like it’s something that can be taught/learnt. He just needs to commit a bit more.

If Benni McCarthy could help Rashford score a few very good headers last year, hopefully he can teach this lad to win an aerial duel or two.

 

[MrBrightside1989]

Love that movement in the box, especially for the first goal.

 

[DSG]

David Bellion, Manucho, Solskjær, Diego Forlan, Dong, Diouf?

Chicharito

 

[Blood Mage]

He's not ready to lead the line for us yet so once again we'll be relying mostly on Rashford and Martial this season. I wish we signing a more experienced striker too.

 

[Trex]

Very happy that we’ve almost completed the signings of every single 1st choice target of ETH.

Kane was first choice, happy with this though.