Man Utd could have another Rasmus Hojlund on their hands with genius £25m summer swoop

They got there in the end. It only took Rasmus Hojlund 14 matches and a viral meme campaign from a contestant on the Australian iteration of The Voice, but finally he has found his groove at Old Trafford.

The Manchester United striker has now scored seven goals in his last six Premier League outings, and the Red Devils must be feeling an increasing sense of vindication with every passing strike; at long last, their £72 million man is coming good, and the timing could hardly be more fortuitous as Erik ten Hag's side mount a late surge towards the top four.

But still, there is a lingering belief that United need reinforcements at the point of attack. Hojlund has stumbled into thrilling form, but with Anthony Martial likely to leave in the summer, and Marcus Rashford fully converted into a winger at this point, other realistic centre forward options are few and far between.

Enter the fray, Mathys Tel. Evidently buoyed by the eventual success of one prodigious continental acquisition, United are understood to be keeping tabs on the French teenager, who is currently on the books at Bayern Munich and firmly beneath England captain Harry Kane in the pecking order.

Indeed, despite costing the Bundesliga giants £25 million back in 2022, Tel has been limited to just 364 minutes across 18 league appearances this season, with the vast majority of those outings coming as a makeshift winger, rather than in his preferred central position.

To that end, there are suggestions that he is becoming dissatisfied with his diminished role, and his agent has made it overtly clear that he would be open to the prospect of an exit if the situation does not improve any time soon.

Speaking to German outlet BILD, Tel's representative said: 'Mathys loves the club, the fans, he wants to be important and win all the trophies here with a strong team. Sometimes you just need to feel like you’re on the same path. We’ll see very soon, but I’m confident. But if not, we have to consider all options because Mathys knows that he is valuable and will be a top player.' And if Sky Sports Germany are to be believed, then United will very much be one of those 'options'.

Of course, there are reasons to be sceptical, from a Mancunian perspective. Some will question the wisdom of signing another relatively unproven centre forward when a measure of experience could perhaps make for a more natural foil to Hojlund's precociousness. Others will argue that if United are to ever properly reestablish themselves as a genuine continental superpower then they need to be signing a player of Harry Kane's ilk, not somebody who can't get a look in because of the Englishman.

But the doubters need only consider the impact that Hojlund is beginning to have on a weekly basis to realise that trusting in youth can pay off in a significant way. In Tel, they have identified a target who has already been compared to the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema, who convinced Bayern to fork out £25 million on a 17-year-old, and who has averaged either a goal or an assist every 74 minutes this season, even in spite of his negligible game time. He is, in other words, a star in the making.

And while he may not be the first name that many United fans will have picked out in their hunt for a centre forward this summer, he could be one that justifies their gamble for years to come. Swoop for Tel in the coming months, and the Red Devils could have another Hojlund on their hands.