Man Utd ‘offer’ winger as makeweight in bid for £69m Sporting star as ‘additional lure’ is revealed
Man Utd have made a bid for Sporting Lisbon midfielder Morten Hjulmand as they look to get their January transfer business off the ground, according to reports.
The Red Devils are yet to make their first signing of the winter transfer window with rumours they could have to offload players before they can bring anyone in.
Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has insisted that Jadon Sancho and Hannibal Mejbri are both close to leaving Man Utd in the current window, although they will likely to loans until the end of the season.
However, those deals, and one or two others, could allow Man Utd to bring in a couple of transfer targets to help Erik ten Hag boost his squad for the second half of the campaign.
Man Utd are currently floundering around in eighth position in the Premier League with Ten Hag’s side out of the League Cup and Champions League.
And The Sun claim that the Red Devils ‘have offered Facundo Pellistri in a swap deal for’ Sporting Lisbon’s Hjulmand after Man Utd scouts have watched the defensive midfielder ‘at least six times already this season’.
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The report adds that the offer ‘has been rejected by the Portuguese club as they wait on the Red Devils to trigger his £69million release clause’ but Man Utd ‘have the additional lure of Christian Eriksen who is Hjulmand’s close friend’.
With Eriksen and fellow Denmark international Rasmus Hojlund at Old Trafford, a transfer to Man Utd would no doubt be tempting for Hjulmand, who has been followed by Arsenal and Tottenham.
But ‘the offer of Uruguayan international Pellistri is not being entertained by Sporting’ and the Premier League club could have to consider a cash-only deal to get the Dane.
There has been criticism of the recruitment at Man Utd over the last decade since Sir Alex Ferguson was manager and Gary Neville has revealed that the Scot always used to get to know the player before signing them.
Neville told the Stick to Football podcast: “[Gareth] Bale, [Cesc] Fàbregas and someone else were the targets [for David Moyes] at Manchester United]. I heard [Sir Alex Ferguson] say this a few years ago.
“They used to meet with the player before they signed them, sit down with them and have a couple of hours, and maybe even with a member of the family to understand – let’s be clear, you can spot an a*****e in an hour if you speak to them, can’t you?
“Should you ever sign a player unless you’ve sat in the house for an hour and a half and just understood what their home environment’s like, what the family’s like, are they good people? The arrogance sometimes when the club doesn’t have control. But if you are Sir Alex and Jürgen Klopp, you’ve got control.”