Rasmus Hojlund must be convinced to join AC Milan, but Igli Tare cannot wait forever in the pursuit of a striker.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Tare didn’t board the plane that took Milan back to Italy yesterday after the friendly against Chelsea. The director remained in England, primarily to closely monitor the developments surrounding the Manchester United striker, the club’s top attacking target.
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On Saturday evening, Hojlund – after staying on the bench for 90 minutes against Fiorentina at Old Trafford – met with the Red Devils’ management. Despite being told that with there’s no longer a place for him at United after the signings of Cunha and Sesko, he wants to stay and fight for a spot.
The Dane is convinced he can compete by staying under Ruben Amorim, a manager who has actually already decided to let him go. It cannot be ruled out that Tare himself will try to speak to the Dane face-to-face in the next few hours, after the striker was approached in recent days by an intermediary.
Milan set a deadline
A few days ago, Milan identified Hojlund as an interesting opportunity, needing to pair Santiago Gimenez with another top-tier striker. Once United opened up to a loan with option, both sides were confident they could reach an agreement, the deal unexpectedly stalled due to the player’s wishes.
Hojlund is reluctant to leave Manchester primarily for reasons of pride: he has nothing against Milan, and in fact appreciates the Rossoneri’s attention. There’s no guarantee he won’t change his mind (as some reports in England suggest he has).
Interestingly, the former Atalanta man already made it clear he’d prefer a permanent move over a loan, should the Red Devils insist on him packing his bags. The Rossoneri, however, won’t wait forever for him.
Indeed, Tare has remained in England to try to understand how much leeway there is to resolve the situation quickly. The Albanian sporting director has given himself a week to close the deal. Otherwise, Milan will begin to (re)consider other options.
What are those other options? Dusan Vlahovic, for whom the obstacles are well known, plus Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson and Gonçalo Ramos of PSG. All three, though, will not be easy to get either.
Look around. Maybe there is someone else other than the ones mentioned. If Hojlund doesn’t want to leave stop wasting so much time.
We need to find someone that wants us. Otherwise we are wasting valuable little time left.
Goku – you are perfectly right but whenever the current milan management is involved, they know best … so please zip up!!!!! They are clever – you are stupid.
Zirkzee
Zirkzee is more of a player like Gimenez, while Milan needs a striker in a Giroud-type striker. A target man.
Zirkzee and Leoni
loan with option 2x
Why not try for Zirkzee ?
What a terrible player
I question the rationale of pursuing Hojlund. That’s an expensive loan at 9mil. And it’s not like the option is cheap either. Unless this is just a back up plan and they want to stall for Vlahovic. But in this case whoever comes in would need time to settle in.
Not sure what the idea is.
Agree. Similarly, they wasted millions for Walker and Felix.
Tolu Arokodare is an option
9m in order to determine if we spend 43m more while accruing the player’s services for a year.
It’s not idea. (Let’s but Isak outright and know we are getting a top talent.) But in our our reality it seems reasonable IF you believe Hojlund could be the guy for the next 7 – 10 years.
Given strikers go for 100m+ these day, if he breaks out then he could also be the sale to finance another reload (which I fervently hope we do not need)
As for the others:
– Jackson is a taller version of Musah. I’d say hard pass. They wanted some crazy number for him as well.
– Ramos is intriguing but I thought he was 60m+. He certainly didn’t set Ligue 1 on fire. I’d want to know more about terms of a deal and look at more game footage.
Honestly I like the Kristovic idea many put forward provided they spend the difference on a more seasoned and dependable CB. (I will say that Gabbia is close to being that guy IMO, but he needs to be more vocal and that might just not be in his toolkit)