Glazer’s time at Manchester United was affected by query marks over recruitment, particularly over the summer season, when he solely performed a handful of video games, however in hindsight it appeared like a defining second.
Take 2009, for instance, when Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez had been changed by Gabriel Aubertan, Antonio Valencia and Michael Owen. Take the summer season of 2013, for instance, when new supervisor David Moyes began chasing the likes of Gareth Bale and Cesc Fabregas, nevertheless it turned out that Marouane Fellaini, who arrived on deadline day, was the one senior addition.
Whereas maybe not as notorious as both of these, the 2023 summer season season additionally deserves severe criticism on reflection, as United didn’t capitalize on a typically robust first season for Erik ten Hag, ending in a third-place end within the Premier League and Carabao Cup glory.
There was discuss of the Dutchman being within the likes of Harry Kane and Declan Rice, however in the long run the Pink Devils turned to Rasmus Hojlund and Mason Mount as a substitute, with Inter’s Andre Onana finishing the trio’s main additions.
All three offers backfired to various levels at a time when United had each likelihood of beginning underneath the previous Ajax supervisor.
Though now a favourite with Ruben Amorim, Mount has scored simply 5 targets in 53 video games throughout his injury-hit two years at Outdated Trafford. Onana, in the meantime, is on mortgage in Turkey and, in keeping with SofaScore, made 5 errors final season on his method to scoring within the Europa League and taking the only lead within the prime flight.
As for Hoylund, the 22-year-old is now Napoli’s new golden boy, regardless of scoring simply 26 targets in 95 video games for Manchester. Think about if Kane arrived as a substitute…
Why United signed Hojland and never Kane
There was a hunch that in Sir Alex Ferguson’s heyday, Kane would nearly actually have been snapped up by the legendary Scotsman who has risen to the highest flight many instances, together with Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney and Andy Cole.
The all-time prime scorer for each Tottenham Hotspur and England, and the virtually assured goal-scorer, has emerged as Ten Hag’s prime goal forward of the 2023 slot, with reviews saying a brand new No. 9 is a must have at Outdated Trafford.
With only one 12 months left on his contract, signing Kane, who was linked with a transfer to Manchester Metropolis two years in the past, seemed to be a risk, however there have been reviews suggesting United are cautious of doing enterprise with the usually cussed Daniel Levy.
There have been additionally reviews that Levy was reluctant to promote his prized possession to a top-flight rival after United’s then-first-team coach Benny McCarthy revealed the membership had been reluctant to pay £100m for a participant in his 30s.
McCarthy mentioned in 2024: “Kane was our primary goal, however clearly value was a difficulty. He was on account of transfer from Spurs to United, which added one other million kilos to the value. As you understand, it did not appear clever for a 30-year-old participant.”
Sadly, Kane ended up leaving for Bayern Munich for a price of round £86m, however United had their sights set on a participant 10 years youthful and initially shelled out £64m for 20-year-old Hoylund from Atalanta.
In response to Transfermarkt, the promising Dane solely scored 27 targets for the membership on the prime degree, and has since added one other 30 between his time at Manchester and now at Napoli.
For comparability, since his departure for Munich, Kane has already reached 103 targets in simply 106 video games for the Bundesliga facet, making him the quickest participant this century to succeed in triple-digit targets for a membership in Europe’s prime 5 leagues.
Clearly, errors had been made that summer season. The issue is that the Pink Devils then did the identical factor once more.
Manchester United’s ‘new Kane’ has turn out to be one other Hoylund
To guard United’s pecking order on the time, the membership had seen a variety of short-term veteran strikers depart within the years prior, together with Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and maybe a extra long-term answer was wanted.
Hoylund (Serie A) vs Kane (Bundesliga) – 25/26 | ||
|---|---|---|
Statistics (*per recreation) | Hoylund | Kane |
recreation | 4 | 6 |
the objective | 2 | 11 |
minutes per objective | 153 | 45 |
missed an enormous alternative | 1 | 3 |
objective conversion | 50% | 52% |
help | 0 | 3 |
A giant alternative has arisen | 0 | 5 |
Key cross* | 0.5 | 2.2 |
Whole Win Duels* | 54% | 57% |
Statistics by Sofascore | ||
That mentioned, McCarthy has additionally argued {that a} smarter operator would have parachuted in a participant like Hojlund to behave as a stand-in or successor to an skilled striker like Kane, moderately than simply placing the goalscoring burden on a younger participant.
“So you’ll suppose we should always have taken the plunge and tried to purchase Harry Kane and in addition spend money on Rasmus Hjølund. If somebody like Harry Kane was concerned, that will have been the perfect factor for Rasmus.”
In a approach, the membership tried to rectify that transfer a 12 months later by signing Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna. The Dutchman was named Serie A’s Younger Participant of the 12 months final season and joins on a £36.5m deal.
On the time, analyst Ben Mattinson advised Zirksee could possibly be Kane’s “pure successor” at Bayern, with reviews that the 6ft 4in striker may return to Munich.
United’s new signing, who was additionally described as being “very comparable” to the England captain, seemed to be the perfect alternative for Hojlund, working as a self-described “9.5” moderately than a full-fledged centre-forward.
The issue, nonetheless, was that Zirksee clearly didn’t have Kane’s medical qualities in entrance of objective. The truth is, he scored simply 11 targets in Serie A in 2023/24, simply two greater than Heulund achieved for Atalanta the 12 months earlier than.
Unsurprisingly, just like the Dane, a participant with no monitor document of prolific goalscoring by no means achieved something near prolific goalscoring at United, ending his debut season with simply seven targets in all competitions, simply three of which got here within the league.
The fleet-footed ahead has one thing of a cult hero for preventing again towards jeers at Newcastle United, however present proof suggests he’s trending in the identical path as his former colleague.
After an injury-plagued summer season, he seems to have been handled by Koby Mainu underneath Amorim, however he has solely performed 82 minutes to date within the 2025/26 season and has not began a single Premier League recreation.
With rumors swirling about an early departure in January and Benjamin Sesco turning into the go-to participant, it appears possible that Zirkzee will observe within the footsteps of Hojlund and never final greater than two seasons at Outdated Trafford.
Like Napoli’s new star, United’s quantity 11 has additionally didn’t translate his Serie A type to English soccer, and former comparisons with Kane are actually considerably forgotten on account of his tendency to keep away from targets.
The expertise is there, however as with Hoylund, Amorim and firm do not have the time to attend for that potential to materialize.
