Rasmus Højlund | Signed for United

[Cassidy]

See if a lot of posters blindly defending the fee as though it represented objective fair value would have just said this instead, there wouldn't be pages of disagreement.

Pretty much.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Its Bellingham all over again

For a club who nutures kids apparently, we are backwards in getting kids in ready for the first team, I mean from outside our own academy. Bellingham was flirting with Liverpool at one point, then once again knew Dortmund will not flinch at bringing a youngster in and playing them. Down the line once Real Madrid get involved you are on a hiding to nothing. Look at SAF with Benzema. That is a signing I regret us not making.

 

[Cassidy]

Like I said, I doubt he would have joined us even if we were in a stable position because the step up in the league was too high. Remember Dortmund didn't have a free run at him, there were a lot of top teams chasing him at the time and he chose to take a gradual step up to a team that had a reputation for giving young players playing time and not yet going to the highest level.

At the end of the day, we don't know what really happened and we can speculate all day about why it didn't happen, it's no use, he'll never be a United player and we're in the wrong thread discussing why we missed out on Haaland.

I simply said, we have a right to ask questions of the club. Hes not the only player. In any case wrong thead so moving on

 

[Fox outside the box]

Some of the amateur fecking accountants in here, feck me. Some people just have to have a moan about anything and everything. You don’t see Madrid fans whining why they spent x on a player they really wanted. They just celebrate getting them. Which is what we should be doing here. Why the obsession over the fee? The same should be expected of him whether we paid 55m or 75m.

The bottom line is that he was the managers top choice for a CF, and we’ve gotten the deal done at a price we could afford, and early in the window. In a position we DESPERATELY needed to strengthen. I don’t understand what’s not to like here.

Madrid dropped 80m on a bench player for the future last summer, as they forward plan, and their fans took it with typical big dick energy. Meanwhile we’ve got a gaggle of mewling quims, who get a better chubby from winning the bookkeeping DoF olympics, than actually building a good squad. The same harem of snivlepots who are still whining about how much Antony cost, or think jokes about “preparing a bid, or monitoring developments” are still funny.

This place is honestly such a depressing buzzkill most of the time. Shoot me for coming in excited we’ve signed a top talent, for a position we were desperately lacking in. I should’ve known I’d be walking into a nerdy, uninformed, nihilistic circle jerk.

So much this. I now rarely interact online or engage in any sort of football discourse because fans have honestly sucked the fun out of everything. I check in here during the transfer windows and have a couple of YouTube channels I'll watch post game etc but other than that I just tend to block out all of the noise from football fans because it's become pretty intolerable.

 

[Licha-Vidic]

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[Dazzmondo]

Not sure this guy is going to get us 20 league goals, we need Bruno to return to his goal-scoring form of his first six months and Rashford to keep close to where he was last season if we are going to score enough goals... unless "he who can't be named" is allowed back into the fold...

That said, it's nice to have someone who wants to be at OT so much, memories of Ruud, and he has to be an upgrade on Anthony Permanently Injured

20 league goals would be a remarkable season. Almost zero chance he gets anything like that. 10-12 league goals is the most we could hope for imo and even that would be a pretty decent return considering his record to this point and his age. Bruno's never scored over 10 non-penalty goals, even in that 18-goal season because 9 of them were penalties. Not realistic to expect much more than the 8 goals he got last season. Bruno creates our chances, the other attackers are the ones who should be scoring.

 

[Crimson King]

If he wasn't going to lead the line, then he'd not get the play time he needed and wanted. He and his dad have been very smart with his development in mind.

Surely you don't believe that. Mixed time zones? That is some typical awful journalism.

Yeah that thing about time zones is very much an urban myth.

 

[BeltUp]

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I know you never talk about players until they have officially signed but please talk about this player you haven't officially signed yet.

 

[Dazzmondo]

You'd be okay with signing a 17 year old striker who had scored 12 goals in the Norwegian league to lead the line for us? Most non-Norwegians hadn't heard of him before Salzburg.

He signed for Dortmund because it's a great club to develop and they allowed a reasonable release clause in case top clubs came calling for him, which they inevitably did. We haven't been a top club for years.

Wasn't he available for like £4m at that stage? Signing talented young players for peanuts makes sense because the risk is way lower. We wouldn't have been buying a 17 year old Haaland to be 1st choice immediately

 

[Fox outside the box]

As I said before, when ETH wants his man the club will deliver it to him even if overpaying, no doubt that ETH pushed hard for him. If he gets it wrong again (as with Antony) then he really shouldn’t get a say in big money transfers again. But I have a good feeling about him.

How has he 'got it wrong' with Antony?

The kid had pretty much the first season I expected him to have. Given his age, playing style etc I always earmarked his third or fourth season as his real break out.

I suspect ETH is pretty happy with his first year.

 

[TrebleChamp99]

Can not wait to see this kid develop under Ten Hag we may have snapped up a real baller here and strikers are so hard to come by .

Love it , inject it! I hope he plays most games and is given the breathing space by the fan base to have a few dodgy games, just imagine in 2 years he’ll only be 22 absolutely crazy.


Some will have to now pipe down about Goldbridge having “no sources” cos this kid adores the United stand and they are in contact…. gonna cry?

 

[Doracle]

Probably missed it all in fairness, but has many really defended the fee? I think you’d need to be blind or oblivious not to think we’ve overpaid. I guess my angle is I’d rather overpay by a few million (5-10m on this deal?) and get our targets in early, then let this dither until season starts.

This is all under the assumption that we got the guy in we wanted (and needed!), assuming the Kane deal was nigh on impossible of course. There just didn’t seem to be that many relevant options available in the market who was going to be cheaper and/or a better fit. Exciting times. Hopefully he can kick on from here.

There’s a whole bunch of posts on here trying to persuade us that £70m is the new going rate for an unproven talent. In fact, one post earlier even went as far as suggesting that it’s the appropriate cost for a back up striker.

We’ve overpaid by about £25m. We can still be pleased that we’ve got a centre forward through the door but that level of insanity in our transfer dealings shouldn’t just be brushed under the carpet.

Anyway, that’s the last I’m saying on the cost. Will be exciting to see how he develops and I hope our fanbase has patience.

 

[sglowrider]

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Not sure ETH knows Reddy's backstory (and how she supposedly got inside info at Liverpool). ''First, we have to finish something... then after you can talk and set the question.''

Reddy's probably thinking,: ''You baldy dirty dog you!! Room number?''

 

[BeltUp]

There’s a whole bunch of posts on here trying to persuade us that £70m is the new going rate for an unproven talent. In fact, one post earlier even went as far as suggesting that it’s the appropriate cost for a back up striker.

We’ve overpaid by about £25m. We can still be pleased that we’ve got a centre forward through the door but that level of insanity in our transfer dealings shouldn’t just be brushed under the carpet.

Anyway, that’s the last I’m saying on the cost. Will be exciting to see how he develops and I hope our fanbase has patience.

How could we have overpaid by 25 mil when PSG made an offer of 50 mil, which is more than that?

 

[gajender]

Not sure ETH knows Reddy's backstory (and how she supposedly got inside info at Liverpool). ''First, we have to finish something... then after you can talk and set the question.''

Reddy's probably thinking,: ''You baldy dirty dog you!! Room number?''

What nonsense is this

 

[Giggsy13]

Great, I see a few have come to complain that we didn’t buy Haaland when we all should’ve known about him in Norway.

 

[zaafi]

There’s a whole bunch of posts on here trying to persuade us that £70m is the new going rate for an unproven talent. In fact, one post earlier even went as far as suggesting that it’s the appropriate cost for a back up striker.

We’ve overpaid by about £25m. We can still be pleased that we’ve got a centre forward through the door but that level of insanity in our transfer dealings shouldn’t just be brushed under the carpet.

Anyway, that’s the last I’m saying on the cost. Will be exciting to see how he develops and I hope our fanbase has patience.

I bet you also praise Real Madrid for spending €70m on a 16 year old Endrick.

We overpaid, it is what it is. They knew we were desperate, and now we're paying the consequences for Woodward's incompetence. How we can go 5 years without signing a striker under 30, or 8 years without a right winger is nothing short of incredibly pathetic planning.

 

[Giggsy13]

There’s a whole bunch of posts on here trying to persuade us that £70m is the new going rate for an unproven talent. In fact, one post earlier even went as far as suggesting that it’s the appropriate cost for a back up striker.

We’ve overpaid by about £25m. We can still be pleased that we’ve got a centre forward through the door but that level of insanity in our transfer dealings shouldn’t just be brushed under the carpet.

Anyway, that’s the last I’m saying on the cost. Will be exciting to see how he develops and I hope our fanbase has patience.

So PSG are the standard now on what the appropriate price for a player should be?

 

[Giggsy13]

As I said before, when ETH wants his man the club will deliver it to him even if overpaying, no doubt that ETH pushed hard for him. If he gets it wrong again (as with Antony) then he really shouldn’t get a say in big money transfers again. But I have a good feeling about him.

“wrong again”…after one season FFS.

 

[Borys]

How has he 'got it wrong' with Antony?

The kid had pretty much the first season I expected him to have. Given his age, playing style etc I always earmarked his third or fourth season as his real break out.

I suspect ETH is pretty happy with his first year.

How did you come to that conclusion?

 

[lex talionis]

Dudes, get on board! The train is leaving the station.

 

[Fluctuation0161]

jesus... Thought club was moving away from these mega fee. These guy will never learn
This is the exact reason clubs want to grind us for every last pennies.
New owner can't come soon enough

£64M is not a mega fee in 2023

 

[Lennon7]

How has he 'got it wrong' with Antony?

The kid had pretty much the first season I expected him to have. Given his age, playing style etc I always earmarked his third or fourth season as his real break out.

I suspect ETH is pretty happy with his first year.

Completely agree, he’s had a better season than Sancho’s ever had and it’s his first one!

 

[Redbandito]

So PSG are the standard now on what the appropriate price for a player should be?

No, but it establishes some sort of market value. The value of something is determined by what people are willing to pay for it. If PSG were willing to pay 50m, then we have to consider that number when discussing the market value.

 

[Fluctuation0161]

I'm unfathomably bored, so to all the "9 goals is hardly great"-chaps, here's a few great strikers in their first season in a top-5 league:

Name + Age in season	Club	Season	Goals - all comps.	Assists - all comps.	Minutes per goal/assist
Zlatan - 22/23 years old	Juventus	2004-05	16 goals	11 assists	133 minutes
Højlund - 19/20 years old	Atalanta	2022-23	10 goals	4 assists	135 minutes
Raúl - 17 years old	Real Madrid	1994-95	10 goals	3 assists	145 minutes
Lewandowski - 22/23 years old	Dortmund	2010-11	9 goals	4 assists	152 minutes
Torres - 18/19 years old	Atl. Madrid	2002-03	14 goals	1 assist	163 minutes
Batistuta - 22/23 years old	Fiorentina	1991-92	14 goals	0 assists	179 minutes
Agüero - 18 years old	Atl. Madrid	2006-07	7 goals	0 goals	394 minutes

Do with it what you want. I look at it as a way a normalizing expectations for strikers and their goal hauls in a top-5 league. As I've found out, a bunch of the strikers that became legends, had top 5-league debut seasons where they didn't necessarily score or assist 1,5 goals a game like Haaland or Brazilian Ronaldo.

Højlund will be an extremely exciting signing. I just hope our fans are aware of the fact they can't simultaneously want a young striker and also demand that the young striker is a finished product. It's not how signing a 20 year old works - Haaland is an anomaly in that regard. Højlund will miss sitters, misplace passes, shoot where he should've passed, pass where he should've shot, but hopefully we can develop him into a world class striker and be our first one since van Persie.

Good analysis.

Time will tell how good he becomes bit he has big potential.

 

[Ish]

No, but it establishes some sort of market value. The value of something is determined by what people are willing to pay for it. If PSG were willing to pay 50m, then we have to consider that number when discussing the market value.

And we were willing to pay more….so surely at the very least the fair market value is an average, if not the value what we (the market) ended up paying?

 

[RedRonaldo]

20 league goals would be a remarkable season. Almost zero chance he gets anything like that. 10-12 league goals is the most we could hope for imo and even that would be a pretty decent return considering his record to this point and his age. Bruno's never scored over 10 non-penalty goals, even in that 18-goal season because 9 of them were penalties. Not realistic to expect much more than the 8 goals he got last season. Bruno creates our chances, the other attackers are the ones who should be scoring.

Sure, but people forget he is only 20 years old kid and is on upward trajectory. Like many elite sriker before him, any moment from now on he could suddenly explode and become a top class goalscorer. Thing is, I believe he has all the complete package and raw qualities to become a top class striker - pace, height, strength, movement, technique and finishing sense, he got it all.

 

[Fluctuation0161]

Our fans are way too worried about what rival fans say or don't say.
Recent times have shown that since at least 2018, strikers have been difficult to sign and the cost for them has been high across the board.
Haaland was a one off, but we really don't know the details behind that transfer.
Brazilian strikers straight from their league are going for 40m up.
The going rate for strikers is quite high at the moment and it has not provided any guarantees over the last few years outside of Haaland and Lewandowski ( who people would not have been willing to buy due to his age).
Teams have also started to try and sign younger options because established options are getting tagged at over 150m, particularly at the centre forward position.
So they are at a premium. 1. Because there are not many of them at the moment. 2. Because with a young striker projected to be worth over 100m in future, you don't know what the market will look like then. There could be less physical strikers or higher prices for strikers at the time.
Goncalo Ramos with a few appearances for Portugal has been tagged at 100m, Kolo Muani has a similar tag too. These are young unestablished strikers who have a lot to prove and that's their tag due to having just a little bit of exposure.
It is also quite clear that we needed a striker. We held off this last summer because we put faith In Ronaldo and Martial.
Both of whom disappointed due to many different factors.
We struggled with their inability to press, pin back defences and make effective runs off the ball. We struggled with presence in that position.
Hojlund provides us with that.
You could make the argument that not having a no.9 and not having depth are the two factors that stopped us from challenging for the title last season. Hojlund coming in already fixes those problems. These were problems we couldn't afford to go into next season without addressing and we addressed them.
It's also quite obvious that we aren't selling Martial and haven't made a decision regarding a certain individual. It's not like we are just hanging our hat completely on Rasmus. What we are ensuring is that we have a no.9 with quality who can lead the line, connect our attacking play and be a focal point immediately and can be a player the club can call on for the next 10 years. We then also have Martial who we would not have to care about his fitness either.
Titles aren't won on net spend, Arsenal under Wenger in his later years should have made that clear to everyone.

United fans are negative because the Glazers have pissed away £1 billion on poor transfers since 2013.

Haaland is a silly comparison because

a) his dad and agent likely got at least £60M
b) City have 115 charges, many of which relate to paying players or staff "off the books"

 

[Dazzmondo]

Sure, but people forget he is only 20 years old kid and is on upward trajectory. Like many before him, any moment from now on he could suddenly explode and become a top class goalscorer. Thing is, I believe he has all the complete package and raw qualities to become a top class striker - pace, height, strength, movement, technique and finishing sense, he got it all.

Hopefully he has that massive breakout year like a Kane or Lewandowski where he suddenly explodes out of nowhere

 

[mshnsh]

The goals contribution was fine, it was the fact he looked a clueless donkey. I would be happy with the goals and Hojland looking a real threat.

If he gets us 20+ in the season but also creates for others and unbalance the opponent, I'll be fine. 15 in all comps will be criticised. At the end of the day, he will be judged by his numbers.

 

[AneRu]

He’d just come off a season with 6 la liga goals. His total time in La Liga was a goal every 3.3 games and for Sweden a goal every 10 games.

Hojlund is a goal a game for Denmark and 1 every 3.5 in Serie A.

So no, no a “greater body of work” or remotely on the cusp of becoming a great goalscorer after 6 la liga goals in 2021/22.

It’s clear why both players attracted similar fees.

Atalanta would’ve been expecting another big improvement next season from him, something similar to Isak’s best season. I’d imagine they saw 15 league goals from him which would have been huge for their CL hopes and put his price at the valuation they stuck on him for this transfer.
They had absolutely no incentive to sell for less.

This and we targeted him with that expected growth/improvement in mind. He is someone we clearly expect to bring all his attributes together soon and explode. Atalanta knew this and that's why they priced him as such. For what it's worth I don't mind overpaying for the right player who can come in and contribute.

 

[Jack-C20]

Can’t say I know anything about the guy but if he’s one of Ten Hag’s preferred options that’s good enough for me. Hoping he’s a combination of Wout’s work rate and Martial’s technique. Not expecting miracles in his first season but let’s be honest, even if he just attacks the far post he’ll get a few easy goals. Feels like it’s been years since we’ve had a striker that isn’t constantly on the back foot hoping the ball comes straight to them. Rashford is good at stretching defenders but feels like we get very stagnant when close to the box. We need someone darting about causing confusion. I’m pretty excited.

 

[Gavinb33]

For a club who nutures kids apparently, we are backwards in getting kids in ready for the first team, I mean from outside our own academy. Bellingham was flirting with Liverpool at one point, then once again knew Dortmund will not flinch at bringing a youngster in and playing them. Down the line once Real Madrid get involved you are on a hiding to nothing. Look at SAF with Benzema. That is a signing I regret us not making.

We actively tried to get both of these players, Bellingham and family got the full red carpet rolled out for them he didn't want to come here you cannot do anything about that and then Benzema has been done a death but as soon as Real moved for him it was over for us but if that deal wasn't done I would have thought he would have been signed by SAF

 

[Herschel Krustofsky]

Hojlund thread bingo.

- What about Kolo Muani?
- Goncalo Ramos would be available
- We've overpaid
- He scored 9 goals in 32 games
- Is he fast? He looks slow
- We got rinsed
- Pressure of the price tag
- Weight of the Man Utd shirt
- Wait for Evan Ferguson next summer
- Rely on Martial and Rashford
- He scored 9 goals in 32 games
- What about Kolo Muani?
- We've overpaid

You missed

‘For 20m extra we could have gone all in for Kane’

 

[zaafi]

If he gets us 20+ in the season but also creates for others and unbalance the opponent, I'll be fine. 15 in all comps will be criticised. At the end of the day, he will be judged by his numbers.

He will be criticised because people share your mindset. You ever thought about giving him time instead of attending the inevitable whinefest because everyone else does it?

 

[Halftrack]

Once again we panic and overpay, no doubt after PSG threw their hat in the ring. And Jamie Jackson is right we might as well have just coughed up another 28-30m for Kane.

Levy definitely wouldn't sell us Kane for 100m, what are you smoking?

Maybe in the last week of the window, if Bayern get tired of Levy's "genius negotiator" act and Lewis really is pressuring him to sell, but right now? Not a chance.

 

[Alemar]

If he gets us 20+ in the season but also creates for others and unbalance the opponent, I'll be fine.

Not sure about creating for others, but he will certainly score 20 goals (in all competitions) this season. It’s more like some other players will be creating for him, and his job is easy - just position himself in the right place to finish moves off

 

[SirScholes]

The over reaction is crazy
Got one of Europes hottest young strikers that another mayor player in Europe was after
50mil 60mil 70mil, who cares, you always over pay for a player unless there is a buy out clause or a the club wants rid
Kane was above budget and wages were too much

this leaves rooms to strengthen midfield as well

 

[Reapersoul20]

Not sure ETH knows Reddy's backstory (and how she supposedly got inside info at Liverpool). ''First, we have to finish something... then after you can talk and set the question.''

Reddy's probably thinking,: ''You baldy dirty dog you!! Room number?''

how did she supposedly get info

 

[DomesticTadpole]

We actively tried to get both of these players, Bellingham and family got the full red carpet rolled out for them he didn't want to come here you cannot do anything about that and then Benzema has been done a death but as soon as Real moved for him it was over for us but if that deal wasn't done I would have thought he would have been signed by SAF

Think it is all about playing time. To me you lie, then worry about it later. If you bring these kids in and they perform, play them.