Manchester United star was ‘very similar’ to Kane, now he’s becoming the new Hoylund

Glazer’s time at Manchester United was littered with question marks over recruitment, especially over the summer, when he only played a handful of games, but in hindsight it seemed like a defining moment.

Take 2009, for example, when Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez were replaced by Gabriel Aubertan, Antonio Valencia and Michael Owen. Take the summer of 2013, for example, when new manager David Moyes started chasing the likes of Gareth Bale and Cesc Fabregas, but it turned out that Marouane Fellaini, who arrived on deadline day, was the only senior addition.

While perhaps not as infamous as either of those, the 2023 summer season also deserves serious criticism in retrospect, as United failed to capitalize on a generally strong first season for Erik ten Hag, ending in a third-place finish in the Premier League and Carabao Cup glory.

There was talk of the Dutchman being interested in the likes of Harry Kane and Declan Rice, but in the end the Red Devils turned to Rasmus Hojlund and Mason Mount instead, with Inter’s Andre Onana completing the trio’s major additions.

All three deals backfired to varying degrees at a time when United had every chance of starting under the former Ajax manager.

Although now a favorite with Ruben Amorim, Mount has scored just five goals in 53 games during his injury-hit two years at Old Trafford. Onana, meanwhile, is on loan in Turkey and, according to SofaScore, made five mistakes last season on his way to scoring in the Europa League and taking the sole lead in the top flight.

As for Hoylund, the 22-year-old is now Napoli’s new golden boy, despite scoring just 26 goals in 95 games for Manchester. Imagine if Kane arrived instead…

Why did United sign Hojland instead of Kane?

There was a hunch that in Sir Alex Ferguson’s heyday, Kane would almost certainly have been snapped up by the legendary Scotsman who has risen to the top flight many times, including Dimitar Berbatov, Wayne Rooney and Andy Cole.

The all-time top scorer for both Tottenham Hotspur and England, and the almost guaranteed goal-scorer, has emerged as Ten Hag’s top target ahead of the 2023 slot, with reports saying a new No. 9 is a must-have at Old Trafford.

With just one year left on his contract, signing Kane, who was linked with a move to Manchester City two years ago, appeared to be a possibility, but there have been reports suggesting United are wary of doing business with the typically stubborn Daniel Levy.

There were also reports that Levy was reluctant to sell his prized possession to a top-flight rival after United’s then-first-team coach Benny McCarthy revealed the club were reluctant to pay £100m for a player in his 30s.

Unfortunately, Kane ended up leaving for Bayern Munich for a fee of around £86m, but United had their sights set on a player 10 years younger and initially shelled out £64m for 20-year-old Hoylund from Atalanta.

According to Transfermarkt, the promising Dane only scored 27 goals for the club at the top level, and has since added another 30 between his time at Manchester and now at Napoli.

For comparison, since his departure for Munich, Kane has already reached 103 goals in just 106 games for the Bundesliga side, making him the fastest player this century to reach triple-digit goals for a club in Europe’s top five leagues.

Obviously, mistakes were made that summer. The problem is that the Red Devils then did the same thing again.

Manchester United’s ‘new Kane’ has become another Hoylund

To protect United’s pecking order at the time, the club had seen a number of short-term veteran strikers leave in the years prior, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Edinson Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and perhaps a more long-term solution was needed.

That said, McCarthy has also argued that a smarter operator would have parachuted in a player like Hojlund to act as a stand-in or successor to an experienced striker like Kane, rather than just putting the goalscoring burden on a young player.

In a way, the club tried to rectify that move a year later by signing Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna. The Dutchman was named Serie A’s Young Player of the Year last season and joins on a £36.5m deal.

At the time, analyst Ben Mattinson suggested Zirksee could be Kane’s “natural successor” at Bayern, with reports that the 6ft 4in striker could return to Munich.

United’s new signing, who was also described as being “very similar” to the England captain, appeared to be the ideal replacement for Hojlund, operating as a self-described “9.5” rather than a full-fledged centre-forward.

The problem, however, was that Zirksee clearly did not have Kane’s clinical qualities in front of goal. In fact, he scored just 11 goals in Serie A in 2023/24, just two more than Heulund achieved for Atalanta the year before.

Unsurprisingly, like the Dane, a player without a track record of prolific goalscoring never achieved anything close to prolific goalscoring at United, finishing his debut season with just seven goals in all competitions, just three of which came in the league.

The fleet-footed forward has something of a cult hero for fighting back against jeers at Newcastle United, but current evidence suggests he is trending in the same direction as his former colleague.

After an injury-plagued summer, he appears to have been treated by Koby Mainu under Amorim, but he has only played 82 minutes so far in the 2025/26 season and has not started a single Premier League game.

With rumors swirling about an early departure in January and Benjamin Sesco becoming the go-to player, it seems likely that Zirkzee will follow in the footsteps of Hojlund and not last more than two seasons at Old Trafford.

Like Napoli’s new star, United’s number 11 has also failed to translate his Serie A form to English football, and previous comparisons with Kane are now somewhat forgotten due to his tendency to avoid goals.

The talent is there, but as with Hoylund, Amorim and company don’t have the time to wait for that potential to materialize.