Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United

[sglowrider]

Club still haven't made a decision on Greenwood but if he's near what he was when he left then that would be a huge re-addition in terms of goal threat and just general quality and may end our need for a striker if he were to kick on from where he left off even with abuse and vitriol going to be coming from all angles.

Think its a football v commercial decision. ETH seems open to having him back.

He will need to get his match fitness/sharpness back and that will take a while -- back to form by January?

 

[mav_9me]

Osihmen would be the obvious target for PSG I'd think, to fill the shoes of mbappe.

 

[Big Ray]

Or we could just start with Rashford in the middle; Sancho as a false 9 or the ol' Faithful, Antony Martial and in parallel get Greenwood up to speed as soon as possible.

Sancho has as much chance of making it at united as Tony martial. Can’t understand why people have him in any starting lineup. A waste of talent and space.

 

[sglowrider]

Osihmen would be the obvious target for PSG I'd think, to fill the shoes of mbappe.

Yeap. PSG isn't exactly known for their player development.

 

[Bebestation]

Think its a football v commercial decision. ETH seems open to having him back.

He will need to get his match fitness/sharpness back and that will take a while -- back to form by January?

I think ten hag is analysing his match fitness, theres no point making a PR move if he has no match fitness effect.

 

[Bebestation]

With Mbappe leaving imminent, and Kane preferring a move to Bayern, its quite clear PSG would be in needed for new forwards.

I wouldn't be surprise if they are really interested in Hojlund since there is lack of quality/attainable striker in the market right now.

I think Goncalo Ramos is more likely.

I also feel psg are going a bit more homegrown look than galactico - so Wahi or Kolo Muani wouldnt surprise me if they want to continue in Ligue 1.

 

[MadDogg]

Yeah, Ander Herrera presented himself as a huge Man Utd fan too, but that didn't stop from diving into the gigantic pile of oil money that PSG offered.

Herrera only became a fan when he joined us. There's a difference between that and being a childhood fan like Hojlund.

That doesn't mean players won't choose to go to other clubs even if the club they are a fan of is after them (more money, more opportunity, more success, etc), but Herrera isn't a good example. Also don't blame him for that, seeing as we didn't even offer him a new contract until after he'd mostly agreed everything with PSG already.

 

[AndySmith1990]

Or we could just start with Rashford in the middle; Sancho as a false 9 or the ol' Faithful, Antony Martial and in parallel get Greenwood up to speed as soon as possible.

Abysmal

 

[mazhar13]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Pedulla retweeted the below information, which seems to be a English translation from his own piece from a little earlier.

Tweet

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Yeah, that is just what I expected. Whilst PSG have been in talks, United are still ahead and have full control of the situation. We will only miss out if we hit our upper limit on what we want to offer and Atalanta still want more.

 

[sglowrider]

Yeah, that is just what I expected. Whilst PSG have been in talks, United are still ahead and have full control of the situation. We will only miss out if we hit our upper limit on what we want to offer and Atalanta still want more.

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.

 

[Tony247]

We just play the season without a proper striker again?

Of course not. If we find a proper striker we should try to get one. Hojlund on the other hand is expensive and unwise gamble.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Really hope PSG aren’t really interested as their money will be hard to compete with.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Of course not. If we find a proper striker we should try to get one. Hojlund on the other hand is expensive and unwise gamble.

What’s a ‘proper’ striker and how will we find an attainable one given this guy is our first choice? I’d rather us get the club and ETHs preferred CF and then us waiting for another to somehow become available

 

[whitbyviking]

Where did I in my original post claim there are other forwards out there?

I'm no scout but let's assume there are no other viable options out there and I still we rather sit out this summer

My mistake, I’d assumed you were another of the “there are better options out there” who then don’t name an option.

I don’t see the market changing drastically in a year, the false 9 experiment from the last decade is being played out now with fewer forwards coming down the line it seems. If we don’t buy someone then I don’t see us making top 4 this season. So we really need to do something now.

Touch has been mentioned like it is a deciding factor. I suspect the club want him because of his physical attributes, his work rate, his finishing and then his ability to operate as a 3. We have a selection of wide forwards who like to come inside and shoot, they are a serious threat from that. A forward who is good off the ball, which Højland seemingly is, can create acres of space and therefore chances. I think they are considering the centre forward here as part of a front 3, not a stand alone 9. He can also head the ball, crossing is part of Anthony’s game that was lost last season with no option in the box other than the Dutch carnival head Wout.

 

[RedRover]

Who’s the 20 goal a season striker we can buy?
You can’t buy ready made for every position. If Ten Hag is willing to spend €60m on Hoijlund, it’s because he feels he can develop him into a goal scorer.
All 20 goals a season goal scorers, get to a point where they start being one.

That's the point isn't it? Kane is the obvious answer and he'd slot in and guarantee goals - but the club can't afford him.

Obviously Ten Hag thinks he can develop him into a goal scorer, but my point is that I can see why some fans are concerned if the club buys another young project player, given the big money spent on similar players who haven't been good enough.

Bottom line, given the lack of goals last year, if Rashford gets injured, this lad may have to carry the burden himself to keep us in the top 4. Is he good enough for that? Big call at 20 and with such little top level experience.

 

[Adisa]

That's the point isn't it? Kane is the obvious answer and he'd slot in and guarantee goals - but the club can't afford him.

Obviously Ten Hag thinks he can develop him into a goal scorer, but my point is that I can see why some fans are concerned if the club buys another young project player, given the big money spent on similar players who haven't been good enough.

Bottom line, given the lack of goals last year, if Rashford gets injured, this lad may have to carry the burden himself to keep us in the top 4. Is he good enough for that? Big call at 20 and with such little top level experience.

Kane isn't just a question of money. Reports after reports have said Levy won't sell to a rival. Oshimen is valued at 170m. When you don't have options, you develop one, that's what all great coaches do. And right now, we don't have options.

 

[flameinthesun]

If another club is willing to pay 60mil then that's how much the kid is worth. If we really want and he is our no1 target then pay it.

 

[laughtersassassin]

Personally I think a Striker should have been the first signing we made this summer.

It's our biggest flaw imo.

Obviously if we get ETH his man it's irrelevant the order for the most part but if we miss out then it's a feck up.

Hopefully we get this done asap

 

[Lash]

Not worried about this at all to be honest. We've agreed personal terms, talking with the club and we're selling players. This will get done.

 

[shabadu84]

Personally I think a Striker should have been the first signing we made this summer.

It's our biggest flaw imo.

Obviously if we get ETH his man it's irrelevant the order for the most part but if we miss out then it's a feck up.

Hopefully we get this done asap

I think the way things have unfolded it's clear we've changed course and are looking to get more goals differently than we had originally planned. Could be for a number of reasons - Kane not readily available, DDG clangers adding up, Onana became available, etc. But it's clear that we are going to have a markedly different playing style this year, which will hopefully produce more threat from around the pitch and goals from more players across the attack. Hopefully that means we will not rely as heavily on a focal point #9 and that will allow us to bed in a development project like Hojlund while also making use of Martial when we can.

 

[Abraxas]

That's the point isn't it? Kane is the obvious answer and he'd slot in and guarantee goals - but the club can't afford him.

Obviously Ten Hag thinks he can develop him into a goal scorer, but my point is that I can see why some fans are concerned if the club buys another young project player, given the big money spent on similar players who haven't been good enough.

Bottom line, given the lack of goals last year, if Rashford gets injured, this lad may have to carry the burden himself to keep us in the top 4. Is he good enough for that? Big call at 20 and with such little top level experience.

I don't think this analysis really changes irrespective of whether we buy Hojlund or any other striker that is realistic at present.

It's the same for many teams around Europe, you don't really want to suffer an injury to your best player and if they do it becomes a struggle. If they were easy to replace they wouldn't be that good. I don't see any striker we could get that would leave me comfortable if Rashford is out for a whole season.

 

[Son]

[

If we sign Hojlund we're not going to sign Kolo Muani because he's already reported as the alternative, we can't give them both game time, same with Vlahovic, and they are both really expensive.

I agree we need another striker option but i'd imagine it would be a cheaper older experienced striker in their 30's to compliment Hojlund's youth

I promise you De Jong is likely to never happen, one because he doesn't want to play for us and two because we seem to have moved away from the style of play we would have played when Ten Hag originally wanted him. Wouldn't be surprised if we are waiting for Kane to do that, I believe he gets sold personally before that's an option but lets wait and see

I hope we sign Kane if it’s either him or Hojland. I mean spending 80m on a player who quite simply hasn’t proved anything is madness if you ask me.

No way in hell would I rely on a 20 year old leading our line coming from an upper mid table Serie A club. It’s not like the guy is Wayne Rooney who was actually proven at that age on the highest level.

The odds of him been upto the standard are so small given the price.

It’s quite depressing City have the actual Haaland and we are after someone who basically just looks like him if you squint your eyes.

Greenwood is obviously twice the player this guy is but again destroyed his own career so again lucky us. Spending 60m for a half baked replacement.

I’d sign Muani regardless. I actually rate him. Don’t need a child leading the line if you want to be a serious team.

 

[Lyng]

[

I hope we sign Kane if it’s either him or Hojland. I mean spending 80m on a player who quite simply hasn’t proved anything is madness if you ask me.

No way in hell would I rely on a 20 year old leading our line coming from an upper mid table Serie A club. It’s not like the guy is Wayne Rooney who was actually proven at that age on the highest level.

The odds of him been upto the standard are so small given the price.

It’s quite depressing City have the actual Haaland and we are after someone who basically just looks like him if you squint your eyes.

Greenwood is obviously twice the player this guy is but again destroyed his own career so again lucky us. Spending 60m for a half baked replacement.

I’d sign Muani regardless. I actually rate him. Don’t need a child leading the line if you want to be a serious team.

80m? Its not him or Kane. Its him or Muani with the latter most likely being more expensive and being more of a winger. Muani has one good season in the Buli, other than that his previous seasons where average.

 

[Max_United]

[

I hope we sign Kane if it’s either him or Hojland. I mean spending 80m on a player who quite simply hasn’t proved anything is madness if you ask me.

No way in hell would I rely on a 20 year old leading our line coming from an upper mid table Serie A club. It’s not like the guy is Wayne Rooney who was actually proven at that age on the highest level.

The odds of him been upto the standard are so small given the price.

It’s quite depressing City have the actual Haaland and we are after someone who basically just looks like him if you squint your eyes.

Greenwood is obviously twice the player this guy is but again destroyed his own career so again lucky us. Spending 60m for a half baked replacement.

I’d sign Muani regardless. I actually rate him. Don’t need a child leading the line if you want to be a serious team.

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.

 

[marktan]

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 riskier Rooney in 2004 or Muani in 2023.Riskier, yes - but is it much riskier? 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.

That's the problem with going by stats. Watch a highlights video of Hojlund now and Rooney at 18 - they're worlds apart.

 

[Amir]

I think the way things have unfolded it's clear we've changed course and are looking to get more goals differently than we had originally planned. Could be for a number of reasons - Kane not readily available, DDG clangers adding up, Onana became available, etc. But it's clear that we are going to have a markedly different playing style this year, which will hopefully produce more threat from around the pitch and goals from more players across the attack. Hopefully that means we will not rely as heavily on a focal point #9 and that will allow us to bed in a development project like Hojlund while also making use of Martial when we can.

I don't know about changes to the way we get goals, but I do agree about changing course. I think we planned to go all in on Kane or Osimen, but realised it will be very difficult to get either and that we might waste a lot of time on that during the summer. So they went for available targets in other positions while monitoring the situation regarding a striker, knowing that Hojlund will be available if needed.

 

[Mockney]

... 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.

I get your general gist, but Rooney was MOTM against France, and scored 2 against Croatia to qualify us in basically a head to head, and then got injured in the next match. The only weak team he played was Switzerland. Bit of a stretch to try and diminish that


Also he was 17, not 20

 

[roonster09]

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

No need of hindsight, Rooney was a monster 18 year old, he even had a great Euro 04 and everyone knew he was not just very good young player, he was already very good player.

 

[marktan]

This guy is so raw that even Gordon Ramsey and condoms would stay away. Save the 70m and get Kane on a free next year and pray to every god that Martial's hamstrings hold up. Martial and Rashford are both better players than this guy, I'd rather we sign someone actually elite rather than spunking 70m on meh players. We have enough in the likes of Sancho and Antony.

 

[Leftback99]

Nothing like overhyping a potential signing. Comparing this to guy Rooney at 18, dear me.

 

[Lyng]

This guy is so raw that even Gordon Ramsey and condoms would stay away. Save the 70m and get Kane on a free next year and pray to every god that Martial's hamstrings hold up. Martial and Rashford are both better players than this guy, I'd rather we sign someone actually elite rather than spunking 70m on meh players. We have enough in the likes of Sancho and Antony.

Without a striker this season we dont get top 4. And without top 4 we dont get Kane.

 

[Camy89]

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.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

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.

Rubbish and promising.

 

[El Jefe]

That's the problem with going by stats. Watch a highlights video of Hojlund now and Rooney at 18 - they're worlds apart.

I've seen stats used to justify some wild things on here recently but this takes the cake.

 

[Redbandito]

This guy is so raw that even Gordon Ramsey and condoms would stay away. Save the 70m and get Kane on a free next year and pray to every god that Martial's hamstrings hold up. Martial and Rashford are both better players than this guy, I'd rather we sign someone actually elite rather than spunking 70m on meh players. We have enough in the likes of Sancho and Antony.

Antony improved us last year. I hope to God we don’t use your strategy. It would be a disaster. If you want Kane on a free next summer, you have to finish top 4 this year. Other clubs are improving their squads. This was our most glaring weakness last year. Hojlund may or may not prove to be worth that number, but if he scored between 10 or 15 goals this year as our CF, he’d improve us from what we were last year. We finish top 4, sign Kane next summer, and finally have two legit strikers with one being elite. That’s a better strategy than rolling the dice with Martial.

 

[Son]

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.

I would argue Rooney by the age of 20-21 had a better career and highlight reel than this guy might ever have.

He was simply world class. We are debating Hojlands first touch on here. I guarantee nobody was debating whether Rooney had to work on his first touch.

He could pull off things that are simply outrageous. Levels apart as footballers and the eye test is all that was needed.

Di Natale probably scored more goals on average per season than Rooney in Serie A around that time. Nothing against him but he wasn’t fit to lace Rooney’s boots on the big stage (which is where we hope to operate).

 

[Enigma_87]

That's the problem with going by stats. Watch a highlights video of Hojlund now and Rooney at 18 - they're worlds apart.

Rooney level of talent in todays game will be Mbappe money. Obviously Hojlund is not at that level

 

[Judas]

Rooney was a sure thing when we signed him, no one had any doubts, honestly it’s embarrassing comparing them. This thread has reached a new level of stupid.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Rooney was always a guarantee. The boy was a man. A machine. A warrior.

 

[T00lsh3d]

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.

He’s going to score 40 goals and anything less will be a travesty. He’s also shit