Man Utd on the brink of caving in Hojlund transfer saga

Manchester United are ready to sell Rasmus Hojlund for well below his market value, such is their desperation to offload the misfiring striker.

The Denmark international’s form again came under fire following Thursday’s 2-2 draw with Lyon in the Europa League. He was hauled off after an hour, having touched the ball only nine times and having spurned one of his team’s best chances.

Although Hojlund is struggling in front of goal, having scored only eight times in 42 appearances this season, including just three Premier League goals, interest in Serie A remains.

While Napoli are thought to be interested in the 22-year-old striker, Juventus are the team most often associated with him and are ready to make a move in the summer to replace Dusan Vlahovic.

According to Tuttomercatoweb, Man Utd have set an initial asking price of €60 million for Hojlund but are prepared to sell the No.9 for significantly less than this figure. Indeed, the Italian source claims that United can be negotiated down to an upfront fee of just €40m with €10m added in potential bonuses.

Hojlund remains unproven

While this still rates as a very large transfer fee, it is significantly under Hojlund’s Estimated Transfer Value (ETV), which sits at the €60m that the Old Trafford side ideally wants.

Justifying such a fee will be difficult for cash-strapped teams, however.

Hojlund’s best season is the 10 goals he netted in 30 Premier League outings for the Red Devils last term, when he also struck five in six Champions League matches. It is this record that has fuelled his high ETV.

Prior to that, he netted nine times in 32 Serie A fixtures with Atalanta, which prompted United to pay €74m for his signature.

Man Utd know they will need to take a sizeable hit on Hojlund, but with buyers hardly lining up to sign the misfiring attacker, Juventus and Napoli both appear to believe they could land a possible bargain.