Astonishing Erling Haaland to Man Utd transfer claim made as Ten Hag is blasted for paying over the odds for ‘suffering’ star

Erik ten Hag has been told he made a big mistake signing Rasmus Hojlund over the summer, with the Manchester United boss told he would have been better putting the Dane’s £72m fee towards the £150m signing of Manchester City superstar Erling Haaland instead.

It’s been a season to forget so far for Manchester United with their record of 13 defeats from their 27 games to date officially their worst start to a season since 1930. In that time, United have suffered the ignominy of finishing bottom of their Champions League group, crashing out of Europe altogether and slipping down the Premier League, failing to register a goal in four matches until Boxing Day’s 3-2 win over Aston Villa.

Their lack of goals in the Premier League (21) is also the joint fourth-worst in the competition this season, with only basement boys Sheffield United (15) and Burnley and Crystal Palace (18) having scored fewer so far.

That worrying lack of firepower has been exacerbated by the fact the club shelled out some £72m on signing Hojlund over the summer. And while the 20-year-old scored five times in six UCL matches, he drew a blank in his first 14 Premier League outings before breaking his duck against Aston Villa.

While many at United ultimately believe Hojlund will come good, eyebrows were certainly raised at the lofty fee shelled out given the player’s tender years and lack of experience at the very highest level.

Now it’s being claimed Ten Hag hopes to bring in another striker in January window, likely meaning their outlay on strikers will stretch even higher, possibly soaring towards the £100m mark.

To that end, Fabrizio Romano has named three attackers they have enquired about with a fourth option seemingly ruled out.

READ MORE: Todibo, Neves, Openda and every player linked with Man Utd ahead of the January transfer window

Man Utd should sign £150m Haaland instead of wasting Hojlund millions

However, writing in his Daily Mail column, former United forward Dwight Yorke feels United should have astonishingly considered triggering the £150m exit clause in Haaland’s deal instead.

And he has also named two other striker options who Ten Hag would have been better off targeting ahead of Hojlund, who Yorke feels looks out of his depth.

“I think they should have paid £150m for Haaland. Harry Kane is an obvious choice. And [Victor] Osimhen is another I would have tried for.

“I feel sorry for the kid Rasmus, he’s suffering all around. I didn’t know anything about him until he came to United for such a huge fee. He’s 20 years of age, never had top-level experience, and you can see he’s in that development stage.”

Yorke also feels United are asking too much of Hojlund to come to a club like United and hit the ground running straight away.

He added: “You can’t bring a rookie in to do a man’s job. It just doesn’t work. He’s making the game look a little bit difficult. But who is he learning from?”

Hojlund is actually now United’s joint-top scorer so far this season with Scott McTominay on six goals, while Bruno Fernandes has five. Those tallies are more than respectable for midfielders but it’s the lack of goals from their attackers which continues to cause concern and leads Ten Hag to look to the January window to try and rectify the problem.

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