Man Utd's cash plus players bid for Hojlund REJECTED

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 13 Jul 2023 15:07 BST
• 3 min read

Manchester United have seen a cash plus players bid for Rasmus Hojlund rejected by Atalanta, with the Serie A side holding out for a club record transfer for their striker.

United are in the market for a new No.9 with Wout Weghorst having failed to replace Cristiano Ronaldo's goals after joining on loan from Burnley, via Besiktas, last season, and 30-goal top scorer Marcus Rashford doing his best work from the left wing.

With the Glazers still not having sold the club - to either Sheikh Jassim or Sir Jim Ratcliffe - despite first inviting bids in November, United have been somewhat hamstrung in this summer's transfer market.

READ: Man Utd beware! PSG open talks with Hojlund

Tottenham Hotspur and Napoli quickly priced the Red Devils out of moves for Harry Kane and Victor Osimhen respectively, with Hojlund emerging as the most likely candidate to plug the gap in United's attack.

But Atalanta were unimpressed at United's attempts to use some deadwood in their squad as counter-weights.

Fred and Van de Beek offered

"Fred and Donny van de Beek are available, with both missing United's first pre-season friendly against Leeds in Oslo on Wednesday as their training loads are managed," reports The Athletic's Laurie Whitwell.

"Atalanta, though, did not express any interest in the players proposed by United and want to be paid the fee for Hojlund in full."

READ: New Haaland 'wants to join Man Utd'

That asking price, however, has climbed to €100 million, with Atalanta keen to capitalise on something that has come, cynically, to be known as the "Man Utd tax" in recent years.

Hojlund has drawn comparisons with Erling Haaland owing to his frame, pace, directness, and Scandinavian heritage, but he only scored nine goals in 32 Serie A appearances last season - some way short of the Manchester City man's 36 strikes from 35 Premier League outings.

And Haaland cost City €60m.