Peter Schmeichel agrees with Paul Scholes over ‘weird’ Man Utd signing | Football

Peter Schmeichel has questioned Manchester United’s ‘weird’ decision to exchange Rasmus Hojlund with Benjamin Sesko in the summertime.

United turned to the transfer market to strengthen Ruben Amorim’s squad on the back of a historically poor season, through which the club finished with their worst-ever points tally within the Premier League.

Matheus Cunha was the primary through the doors on the Theatre of Dreams, joining from in a deal price £62.5million after an excellent campaign with Wolves.

The Red Devils followed this up by wrapping up a £71m agreement with Brentford for Bryan Mbeumo to further strengthen Amorim’s misfiring attack for the brand new season.

United’s long-suffering fanbase were still demanding upgrades at either end of the pitch, though, with each Hojlund and Andre Onana falling a way wanting expectations last term.

A number of high-profile centre-forwards were linked before United honed in on the signing of RB Leipzig’s Sesko, who scored 21 goals in 45 appearances in his second season in German football.

Old Trafford bosses then turned their attentions to finding a substitute for the error-prone Onana – and a £18.1m deal was struck with Royal Antwerp’s Senne Lammes with just hours remaining of the window.

This allowed Onana and Hojlund to depart on loan for Trabzonspor and Napoli respectively and the latter, particularly, has found a brand new lease of life in Italy, scoring 4 goals in his opening six games.

While Sesko has struggled to have the identical kind of impact since replacing Hojlund, the Slovenian has given United supporters a glimpse of what he could bring with two goals in his last two appearances for the club.

Nonetheless, legendary ex-United goalkeeper Schmeichel – echoing what Paul Scholes said earlier this week – told the BBC’s Sacked In The Morning podcast: ‘The signing of Sesko was a bit weird to me.

‘We had Hojlund, starved of service for 2 years. You simply have to see what he’s doing now at Napoli with Kevin De Bruyne and Scott McTominay to play with.’

In line with Schmeichel, Hojlund could still be a lethal goalscorer for United if he’s given the ‘first-class service’ he requires when he returns from Napoli.

‘I actually have consistently said Hojlund will likely be a 25-goal-a-season striker, but he needs service,’ the Dane said of his fellow countryman.

‘On the time, we brought Cunha and Mbeumo in – players who would give Hojlund first-class service.

‘We spent £70m or so on Sesko [but] we don’t have that number six we must always have.’

Schmeichel still has some concerns surrounding United’s goalkeeping situation, despite an encouraging debut performance from Lammens within the side’s 2-0 victory over Sunderland.

‘This season alone, now we have conceded nine goals from goalkeeping errors. That is just too much,’ he continued.

‘After I played, or Edwin van der Sar, or David de Gea, the temporary was to win ten points a season.

‘After I played, the manager was in charge. He said: “Him in, him out.” Now it’s different individuals with different agendas.

‘How are you going to create an environment stable enough to have a team that may go on the pitch and win yearly?’

Asked if he could be interested by a behind-the-scenes role at United, Schmeichel replied: ‘I might love that. I might absolutely love that.’

United’s squad can have taken encouragement from their win over Sunderland before the international break, but a frightening task awaits Amorim’s men away tobitter rivals Liverpool this weekend.

The Premier League champions have hit their first major blip since Arne Slot over the reins from Jurgen Klopp charge and surrendered top spot with defeat at Chelsea last trip.

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