I think that’s a fairly obvious approach, especially as much of their target range of players will not be available to them. However, the big issue for them is surely that they have yet to show any evidence of recruiting well amongst the younger, cheaper players. It’s not so much an age thing with Utd but one of quality and fit for what they are trying to do?
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Part of the problem is that what they are trying to do changes with every new manager that walks through the door. There is no long-term plan.
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The Telegraph are on it as well - 80-100 million pounds is the sum.
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What the hell are Al-Hilal building by the way… Sergej and Fernandes in midfield, Mitrovic and Nunez up top?
Balance? Could struggle even in Saudi.
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There were rumours of Milinković-Savić’s departure, they are probably raising funds to buy Fernandes and Nunez.
The money they spunked on Hojlund is unreal. I’ve never seen a glimpse of anything from him other than a bang average player. And that’s being kind.
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Also those players are walking into a toxic culture and the most impressionable point in their careers.
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He’ll probably leave on loan and get twenty goals for an upper mid table Spanish Team.
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Realistically, they should have been doing that 5 years ago. Their core problems weren’t really any different, their wage structure was a mess and they were heading toward a financial crunch. That is actually a worrisome sign of joined-up thinking and some fundamentally sound decisions. If they bring in a Milner-type a year or two from now, they will start to build some real momentum.
The killer question is whether or not Amorim is the right coach to make that work, including a couple of years of struggle. Had he come in fresh, who knows, but he is probably tainted goods now.
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In way, we made a similar mistake with Nunez - buying a player after one great season. That said, Nunez was walking into an organised side, while Hojlund wasn’t and should have waited for one or two seasons in hindsight. That said, I wonder if Atalanta thought he wouldn’t get another productive season, so they quickly decided to flip him for huge profit.
For Atalanta, the numbers involved are astronomical - what they thought he might do the next season probably barely entered consideration.
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If they purge all their experience and replace them with rookies, I’m expecting them to continue to struggle, from a combination of the natural inconsistency of young players and a lack of leadership.
Likely we’ll see happen what is already happening with Hojlund: rated young player brought in, not able to flourish due to huge systemic issues at the club, fans quickly lose patience and they end up getting bombed out.
It’s actually really unfair to bring talented young players into that environment.
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Atalanta were reportedly stunned that someone was coming in with that sort of offer for a player who was highly rated in terms of potential but still very low down on his development curve. He was at least a year away from being ready for a move to Utd both in terms of his own development, but also in terms of learning what sort of player he was as he was neither one thing nor the other as a forward. Utd bought him to be the focal point of the attack when he was no such thing.
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To be fair, I saw the carpet rolling and hand chopping as references to their government rather than their ethnicity or even referring to the people at large? I think the carpet rolling is a reference to Khashoggi?
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One more thing about the Hojlund transfer is that he is represented by the same agency which represented ETH.
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Losing 1-0 to Hong Kong currently
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