Rasmus Hojlund has had an impressive start to life at Napoli and could earn a permanent move if he continues to perform in the Serie A and Champions League.
After struggling to lead the line at Manchester United for two seasons, Ruben Amorim decided to send Rasmus Hojlund on loan to Napoli in the summer.
Hojlund sat out the first few games of the season before United signed Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig, so the writing was on the wall for the young Denmark international.
The bar was so low for Hojlund at United, and he was always expected to perform better at Napoli, especially in a league that he knows from his time at Atalanta.
Hojlund had the dream start to life as a Napoli player, but was left out of Antonio Conte’s squad for their visit to Torino following the October international break. Lorenzo Lucca took his place in the line-up before struggling and proving that the Italian champions are now reliant on the United loanee.
This bodes well for United as Ineos will be hoping to sell Hojlund in the summer.
Napoli expected to trigger Rasmus Hojlund clause next month
Hojlund is not expected to return to Old Trafford at the end of his Napoli loan.
The Dane is currently injured, but he has proven himself to be a force in front of the goal with four goals in six games.
Reliable transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano claims Napoli are expected to trigger a buy option for Hojlund in the next month due to an obligation included in the agreement.
Speaking on the Here We Go podcast, Romano said: “No, I don’t think Rasmus Hojlund will go back to Manchester United. My feel is very clear. Rasmus Hojlund, well, now he’s injured, he’s been injured for the last few games, but as you mentioned, he started very well in Serie A and Champions League with Napoli.
“And the expectation of all parties involved, players, agents, clubs, both Napoli and United, is for the €44 million buy option clause to be triggered this month.
“So very soon, very, very soon, in the next month, let’s say like this, because there is an obligation to buy element included in the agreement, and this could be triggered quite soon.”
Conte will hope to have Hojlund back available again soon because Napoli already have former United striker Romelu Lukaku out injured.
Peter Schmeichel believes Rasmus Hojlund is a 25-goal striker
Former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel has been talking on a podcast about Hojlund and Scott McTominay, who left United for Napoli last year before winning the Serie A title.
Schmeichel remains bewildered by the decision to sell McTominay and questions parting ways with his fellow Dane, Hojlund, and replacing him with Sesko.
Schmeichel believes that Hojlund can still prove himself as a 25-goal per season striker.
“At United you’ve got a head coach [Ruben Amorim], then you had a director of football [Dan Ashworth], a technical director or whatever Jason Wilcox’s title is, and you’ve got a head of recruitment [Christopher Vivell], who is very powerful,” he told BBC podcast Sacked in the Morning.
“You’ve got a lot of people deciding on who is coming in.
“For instance, the signing of Benjamin Sesko was a little bit weird to me because we have Rasmus Hojlund, who has been starved of service for two years.
“You only have to see what he’s doing at Napoli with Kevin de Bruyne and Scott McTominay to play with – he’s scoring goals.
“I’ve consistently said this for two and a half years – Rasmus Hojlund will be a 25-goals-a-year striker for Manchester United, but he needs service.
“We let him go on the stats that he scored very little goals last season and bring Sesko in at the time we bring in Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbuemo, who would give Hojlund first-class service.
“You spend £70m-plus on Sesko, when we don’t have the number six we should have, and there’s the goalkeeping position as well.
“This season alone we’ve conceded nine goals from goalkeeping errors. When I played, when Edwin van der Sar played, when David de Gea played, the brief was win 10 points a season, you don’t give points away.
“Why did we bring someone in that we didn’t need? Because the head of recruitment comes from Leipzig [also Sesko’s former club] and he’s got to make a mark.
“When I played, the manager [Sir Alex Ferguson] was in charge. He said ‘him in and him out’. Now it’s different people with different agendas that decide. How can you create a stable environment to have a football team that can go out and win every game?”
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