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Rasmus Hojlund is a wanted man.
The Manchester United striker endured a miserable season last time around, amassing just four Premier League goals in 32 appearances.
His failure to kick on after a reasonable first season in the red jersey has prompted United to make signing a striker a priority this summer.
However, Hojlund’s agent has told the club his star wants first team football – in other words, they should find him another club if they don’t consider him to be their main striker going forward.
Enter Inter Milan. Having been pipped for the Serie A title by Napoli and thrashed 5-0 by PSG in the Champions League final, the Nerazzurri are prioritising the addition of a striker this summer to provide backup to Lautaro Martinez, and have made Hojlund their number one target.
While Hojlund has gone on the record to say he expects to play at Old Trafford next season, the consensus among the media so far is that he is, in fact, extremely tempted by Inter’s advances and by rebooting his career back in the country in which he made his name.
What happens next?
Italy’s Sunday morning football papers present two very different pictures of the Nerazzurri’s strategy to capture the 22 year old.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport (GDS, today’s paper edition page 2), it’s “Full speed ahead on Hojlund.” The outlet says that the Dane “could soon change jersey and wear the black and blue one.”
“Now he is ahead of everyone in the club’s preferences for the attack of the future: there is finally room for an investment up front and, at the moment, no one seems to deserve it more,” they insist.
“After an initial direct meeting in Milan, there will be another through intermediaries in the coming days.”
All well and good, except that, from the off, the deal has had huge stumbling block attached to it. United want €45 million for Hojlund to avoid a capital loss, whereas Inter want a loan with an option to buy.
GDS believe a compromise can be found by Inter paying a high loan fee and an almost guaranteed obligation to buy in a year’s time.
Playing the waiting game
This issue of United’s insistence on a sale is also central to Corriere dello Sport’s account of developments (CDS, today’s paper edition, page 4).
Far from Inter going “full speed ahead”, CDS say “time is money” and that “there is no rush” to push ahead with a deal.
“Letting a few weeks pass could be an advantageous strategy for Inter when it comes to sitting down at the negotiating table,” the report states.
“New offensive arrivals at United, in fact, could accelerate the departure of Hojlund.” Their logic: by waiting for United to replace the Dane, the Old Trafford outfit will be under more pressure to move him on – both for financial reasons and to avoid keeping an unhappy player in their ranks – and will have little choice other than to accept the loan with optional purchase formula favoured by the Serie A club.
There is a flaw in that logic, though, as United are believed to be needing to sell players before they can buy a striker. So if Inter are waiting until them to buy a striker before negotiating over Hojlund, a stalemate is reached.
Whatever strategy Inter take, the Italian media agree on the most important detail, namely, that Inter Milan are desperate to sign Rasmus Hojlund, and United are equally keen to sanction an exit.
Featured image Alex Livesey via Getty Images
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