Rasmus Hojlund was signed by Manchester United to be Viktor Gyokeres. He isn’t, but could turn into something like him under Ruben Amorim. He’s got six months to prove himself or they’ll sign the actual thing.
Key figures at Manchester United are understandably wary of signing Sporting stars for Ruben Amorim having been burnt implementing the same Buy His Players policy under Erik ten Hag. There’s very recent and strong evidence for caution, but Viktor Gyokeres is worth holding off on a blanket ban.
Reports claim the striker will be available for £63m in the summer and for other clubs as well as United, but specifically United given they’ve just hired the manager under whom Gyokeres has made his name, that will surely prove too good an opportunity to pass up.
After his hat-trick against Manchester City he’s now scored 48 goals in 2024, 12 more than second-best Harry Kane and 15 more than the man he’s being inevitably compared to, Erling Haaland.
Thirty-plus goal seasons before moving to the Premier League are far from a guarantee of success once you get there, but 40+ might be (we literally don’t know because it’s not happened before) and Gyokeres is well on course to meet that target this season having claimed 43 last term.
Manchester United will feel that that if they can afford to buy Gyokeres then they can’t afford not to, a) because there’s every chance he will be brilliant for them, and b) if they don’t buy him another Premier League club – maybe Arsenal – probably will.
It would be a big slap in the face for Rasmus Hojlund, who’s retained his spot as the main man up front for United despite the arrival of Joshua Zirkzee in the summer by virtue of being able to do things like control and pass the ball. But it’s precisely because he’s not done a great deal more than that that these links with Gyokeres are even a thing.
Let’s not forget that Hojlund was signed for the same fee as Gyokeres is available for; a ludicrous sum of money given what Hojlund did before the move and what he’s done since.
But it’s impossible to know how much of Hojlund’s mediocrity has been down to the manager and the system, and there are plenty of Manchester United fans claiming – with reason – that they need not sign Gyokeres because they’ve already got their own version.
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Gyokeres is the player the United chiefs thought they were signing in Hojlund, or at least what they hoped he would turn into. That’s evidently not happened yet – he’s scored 18 goals in 53 games – but there’s been just about enough evidence to suggest that Hojlund at least has the tools to be That Guy even though he looks a long way off Gyokeres right now: clever finishes like the one against Brentford, driving runs with the ball as we saw frequently in the Champions League group stage last season and generally good hold-up play.
Sporting aren’t about to let Gyokeres leave in January having just parted with their manager. The move will be in the summer. A perfect timeframe for Manchester United, if not for Hojlund, who now has a six-month audition under Amorim to show his new manager that the club doesn’t need a 40+ goal striker, thank you very much. No pressure then.
But maybe he needs it. We get that there’s big pressure at Manchester United, which has no doubt been heightened by his price tag. But it’s not like he’s fighting for his place in the team. If he’s fit he plays, no matter his level of performance. At least now he has competition, even if that’s from someone yet to be a United player.
The signing of Gyokeres would represent a climbdown for Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the new directorship at Old Trafford, who have consistently named Hojlund as one of three untransferable commodities along with Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo, convinced that he has the potential to be a £100m player.
The question is how long will they wait for that potential to be realised, if it ever is, because while the £40m striker they bought for £63m may turn into a £100m goalscorer they could just buy a £100m goalscorer for £63m.
