03 August 2023 , 14:59
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Rio Ferdinand has waxed lyrical about the way Manchester United have conducted their business this summer and compared it to transfer windows of the past.
The Red Devils are on the verge of confirming the arrival of Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta, for an eye-watering fee of £72million. Erik ten Hag has long been on the prowl for a striker that can lead the line and in 20-year-old Hojlund the United boss will hope he has found just that.
The Dutch striker is not United's first piece of business this window either. Mason Mount was purchased from Premier League rivals Chelsea for £55m, while long-term goalkeeper David de Gea was replaced by ex-Ajax and Inter Milan shot-stopper Andre Onana for another £51m.
United's spending isn't expected to stop there either, with Ten Hag still searching for another midfielder to bolster his options in the middle of the park. It is believed the Red Devils boss wants to add more experience to his current crop, something new addition Hojlund doesn't exactly have in abundance.
Ten Hag's side had long been linked with a move for Tottenham talisman Harry Kane, yet it soon became glaringly obvious that United's fellow big-six side had very little interest in selling the England captain to a direct rival for anything less than £100m.
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Instead of dithering and trying in vain to drive Kane's price-tag down, United simply sought an alternative option - something Ferdinand has praised his old side for.
Rasmus Hojlund became United's priority target once it became clear there was little chance in landing Harry Kane's signature (Getty Images)Mirror Football is now on Threads! You can follow us here.
"What I’m really pleased about is the transfer window,’ Ferdinand told talkSPORT. "It’s been decisive, it’s been efficient, they’ve been effective in that they’ve gone for particular players and they’ve got them. I’m sure they wanted Kane but they’ve quickly realised that they would have been priced out of the market.
"They couldn’t get him so move on, next target, who’s in line? They’ve more or less got him now and I really like that. That’s the difference to what we’ve been used to at Manchester United."
Fiorentina star Sofyan Amrabat has emerged as Ten Hag's ideal midfield candidate and the fact that United's interest still lingers and they haven't looked elsewhere like they did with their pursuit of Kane suggests those running the show at Old Trafford are confident a deal can be reached.
If there is one area where United's summer transfer efforts could improve, it is by shifting fringe players who no longer have a future at Old Trafford.
The likes of Dean Henderson, Eric Bailly and Donny van de Beek have all enjoyed loan spells elsewhere in recent seasons and are not key figures in Ten Hag's plans moving forward. All three of the aforementioned are up for sale, though finding buyers is proving more difficult than first anticipated.
The cash generated by these sales, were they to go through, would most likely be used on funding a deal for Amrabat, who is keen on the move to United and has already played under Ten Hag while at Dutch side FC Utrecht.