Man Utd give intriguing answer to £219m question as ‘gamble’ gives Ten Hag everything he wanted

Some absolute nonsense greeted news of Man Utd finding a breakthrough over Rasmus Hojlund, but Erik ten Hag will take no notice of those scoffing critics.

The moment Man Utd accepted that the extraction of Harry Kane from Tottenham would have required a far higher degree of negotiating with Daniel Levy than they were comfortable with, the die was cast.

Whichever striker ended up at Old Trafford this summer was going to be greeted with the same wider reaction, regardless of circumstance: could they not just have spent that little bit more to get their primary target?

‘Huge pressure on Hojlund in the summer Harry Kane is likely to leave Spurs,’ was the take from Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News to reports of an agreement being struck over Rasmus Hojlund, with enough cowardly subtext to enrage Garth Marenghi.

‘The stance on Kane becomes harder to fathom given the gamble United have now taken on Hojlund at huge expense,’ wrote James Ducker, the Daily Telegraph reporter thoroughly underestimating just how Daniel Levy Daniel Levy can be.

‘Erik ten Hag began the transfer window targeting Tottenham’s Harry Kane before the club pulled out. The total price for Hojlund is only around £28m less than the England captain would cost,’ claimed Jamie Jackson of The Guardian, with all the nuance of a child using their fingers to do basic arithmetic.

It was indeed quite foolish of Man Utd not to at least explore the possibility of signing Kane without ever actually paying him. They really could save an awful lot of money if they just disregarded their wage bill. Yet more proof of an amateurish operation. Fergie would never.

Alas, Kane’s reported demands for £575,000 a week over four seasons of probable brilliance, combined with a fee of at least £100m, were a little too rich for Man Utd’s tastes. A relatively modest budget has already been stretched by Mason Mount and Andre Onana after all.

So deciding not to commit more than £219m on a 30-year-old barely seems ‘hard to fathom’; deciding not to waste time trying to tempt Levy into a Premier League sale was a rare example of wisdom and clarity from a club whose reputation for transfer dallying precedes them.

Turning instead to Hojlund, whose reported £80,000 deal over six years comes to a significantly cheaper £96.9m when combined with the total fee, is perfectly sensible. It is a call based on a difference of more than £100m and – while Kane is infinitely more proven – almost 10 years.

READ MORE: Ten Hag ‘ready to welcome’ €115m duo with ‘bags packed’ despite no ‘agreement’ on fee

Man Utd have ‘overpaid’ for a 20-year-old Hojlund at £64m. Yet they are signing him not for what he is now, but for what he could be at 21, 22 and heading into a possible mid-20s peak. By becoming that middle man, that finishing school willing to take time honing a talent instead of signing them ready-made, the hope is that money is ultimately saved.

And considering Hojlund has already moved from Copenhagen to Sturm Graz for little over £1m in January 2022, then to Atalanta for about £15m that August, it is only natural to forecast further multiplications in value if his development continues apace.

After laying down a £12.6m fee and well over £30m in wages for the failed vanity project that was a 36-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo’s return, this is a refreshing change in approach.

Their automatic instinct is to go for experience, proven excellence, the finished project, a name. For Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani or Zlatan Ibrahimovic to come in, sell shirts, set standards in the dressing room and be praised for their professionalism behind the scenes but ultimately become an obstruction due to the inevitable short-term nature of their arrival.

That cycle needed to be broken eventually.

And while Hojlund is an undoubted ‘gamble’, there are few in the sport who are not; there are none who are both relatively cheap and guaranteed to succeed. In this ludicrous summer transfer market for striker valuations, plenty have speculated over what Man Utd could do. To accumulate in this way is different – certainly for them – but that doesn’t make it wrong.

It is also a sign of immense faith in Ten Hag, whose comments after the Real Madrid pre-season friendly might well have expedited negotiations.

“There were two things – the pressing can be better from the start, and scoring goals. I think we need more players who are capable to be in the one-on-ones,” he said.

“The only thing I can say is we do everything that’s in our power to get it done. If it was up to me, as soon as possible, the earlier the better, because we have to integrate him in the team, the way of play,” the Dutchman added of his hypothetical striker.

In an ideal situation, he was already here but you do not always get ideal situations as a manager and you have to deal with the situation.

Man Utd have done precisely that, and judging a six-year project before it has even started is a churlish but inescapable reality for player and club, who will have to learn to ignore the external noise.

Hojlund, whose reported initial fee matches that which Liverpool paid for Darwin Nunez, who scored the same amount of league goals last season as Hojlund did in his first in a major European division, must eventually bridge that gap between expectation and truth which a headline figure of £64m creates. But as long as there are signs of promise and a foundation upon which Ten Hag can build, the parties involved will be satisfied.

The early comparisons to Erling Haaland are wilfully ignorant grabs at engagement; no-one is anticipating that degree of imperious excellence, at least not now. But it should also be pointed out that Hojlund is replacing a forward who did not score a single Premier League goal in 17 games on loan. The immediate bar Man Utd set internally is bound to be far lower than what everyone outside the club already mocking the move has envisioned.

Kane would have cleared it, but he would also have cost at least twice as much and been basically impossible to sign until the last weeks of the window, if indeed at all. Hojlund is younger now than the Spurs striker was when he scored his first Premier League goal, and far further ahead in his development. Those criticising Man Utd for their risk-reward calculations must at least concede that they have actually done their working out.

Højlund 🆚 Haaland… 👀 pic.twitter.com/D6QQOE8dTs

— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) July 30, 2023