Manchester United will conclude their season at Brighton this weekend, knowing that third place in the Premier League is theirs, as a campaign which began poorly will end with a return to the Champions League.
Michael Carrick took the reins as interim Manchester United boss in January when the club called time on Ruben Amorim’s tenure and the former England and Red Devils midfielder has delivered the team’s best campaign for three years, paving the way for him to be named permanent boss.
When that is confirmed, Carrick will be able to look forward to a full pre-season in the job, when he will no doubt have a say on how the club conduct their business in the transfer window.
Manchester United set for £38m windfall
Last summer, the club had a transfer spend of more than £200 million, with the focus being on the club’s attacking corps, as the likes of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko were all brought in.
This retooling of the attack also saw a number of loan exits and one of these has resulted in an end-of-season windfall, with a former Red Devils star playing a key role.
Rasmus Hojlund joined Manchester United in the summer of 2023 in a £64million move from Atalanta, but a return of just 14 goals from 62 Premier League appearances over two seasons saw him fall out of favour at Old Trafford.
The Danish international moved back to Serie A last summer, joining Napoli on a season-long loan which included an obligation to buy if the Italian side qualified for the Champions League this season.
Hojlund quickly established himself in Antonio Conte’s side and while champions Inter have left all-comers in their wake this season and derailed Napoli’s title defence, the Naples side were able to seal Champions League spot on Sunday, when they eased to a 3-0 victory over already-relegated Pisa.
Hojlund netted his 15th goal of the campaign when he scored against Pisa and joined his former Manchester United team-mate Scott McTominay on the scoresheet.
McTominay, who joined Napoli in the summer of 2024 has again been one of the club’s driving forces this term and Manchester United will certainly be thanking the Lancaster-born Scot for helping Napoli reach the Champions League and activating the resulting £38million clause for making Hojlund’s deal a permanent one.
In FourFourTwo’s view, this is a transfer that makes sense for all parties.
Hojlund - who is currently valued at €50million by Transfermarkt - was clearly not clicking at Old Trafford and as a result his value was tanking. While the club have had to swallow a loss on the £64million they paid to land him from Ajax three years ago, holding onto a player they do not want could end up being even more costly.
Now, Manchester United will be able to go into the summer window with more financial firepower to go along with the clout that offering Champions League football will bring as they look to upgrade their squad for a return to Europe’s top table.
