Lee Congerton profiled as Manchester United show interest after Rasmus Hojlund deal

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Manchester United are interested in Atalanta’s Lee Congerton just months after bringing Rasmus Hojlund to Old Trafford.

Manchester United are expected to push for the appointment of a new sporting director once Sir Jim Ratcliffe is on board.

Ratcliffe’s purchase of a 25% stake in United should be confirmed soon and he will be looking to make big changes to the club’s football structure.

That means landing a sporting director in an attempt to change United’s recruitment – and a number of options are in the mix.

Manchester United interested in Lee Congerton

The Telegraph report that United are considering several potential appointments with Lee Congerton in contention.

Congerton realised early in his playing career that he preferred coaching, taking on roles at Wrexham and Liverpool.

Congerton headed to Chelsea in 2005, working as the club’s youth coach under Jose Mourinho before landing the job of chief scout.

The Welshman moved on to Hamburg as sporting director in 2011 before returning to English football with Sunderland in 2014.

That move didn’t work out too well and Congerton was gone inside two years as Sunderland struggled in the Premier League.

Congerton reunited with former Chelsea colleague Brendan Rodgers at Celtic and then followed him to Leicester City in 2019.

Whilst Congerton oversaw deals for Youri Tielemans and Wesley Fofana, there were the likes of Jannik Vestergaard and Cengiz Under.

The 50-year-old made a surprising move in 2022 as he joined Atalanta, signing the likes of Merih Demiral, Ademola Lookman and a certain Rasmus Hojlund…

Congerton wanted even more money for Rasmus Hojlund

Congerton spotted Hojlund’s potential at Sturm Graz, seeing the Dane score 12 times in 21 games over in Austria.

Atalanta struck a €17million (£14.85million) move for Hojlund, a hefty outlay for a player Copenhagen let go just months earlier.

Congerton’s faith paid off as Hojlund showed huge promise and earned himself a big move to United.

£64million rising to £72million was a staggering price tag for Hojlund and enormous profit in just one year for Atalanta.

Remarkably, Congerton thought the deal should have been even more expensive.

The Athletic claim that Congerton thought the deal should have been worth €100million (£87million), meaning he felt United received a £15million discount on the striker.

Congerton spotting Hojlund may well have put him on Ratcliffe’s radar, but we would say that his mixed record elsewhere means other targets are more appealing.