Paul Scholes baffled by Man Utd signing: ‘Where’s the common sense?’

Paul Scholes was left confused by Manchester United’s summer transfer business which saw Rasmus Hojlund leave and Benjamin Sesko arrive at the club.

Hojlund was signed from Atalanta in 2023 and had two underwhelming seasons at Old Trafford, scoring 26 goals in 95 appearances for the Red Devils.

There was a significant revamp of Manchester United’s attacking options over the summer as Sesko, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha were brought in, while Hojlund, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Antony left.

The Denmark international has gone on loan to Napoli and has started brilliantly under Antonio Conte, scoring four goals in his first six games.

Club legend Scholes feels far too much pressure was on Hojlund when he arrived in Manchester at just 20 years old, tasked with leading the line for the Red Devils.

While Sesko has had an encouraging start, the former midfield maestro feels his old club has done the same thing with the Slovenian as they did with the Dane.

‘You look at Rasmus Hojlund, 22-year-old kid, came when he was 20 years of age,’ Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast.

‘One centre-forward for Manchester United and everything was on him, the pressure was on him and he couldn’t handle it. He should be coming in and and out of the team. There should be three or four centre-forwards there.

‘This summer, what do they do? They let him go and they buy another one, very similar, exactly the same! 22 years of age. He’s started ok, he looks like he’s getting better. But where’s the common sense in that?’

Scholes contrasted the situation to when Manchester United signed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from Molde in 1996, a time when the squad boasted Eric Cantona and Andy Cole and would soon add Teddy Sheringham and Dwight Yorke.

‘It’s like Ole coming over to us when he was 22 and we had no other centre-forward and he was the one playing every week,’ Scholes said. ‘You’d kill him!’

Scholes was in conversation with former United teammate Nicky Butt, who were both members of the famed Class of ’92.

Butt pointed out that when they came through as young players they were eased into the side and were surrounded by top players, unlike the current Red Devils side, which makes it far harder for the current crop.

‘That’s us as well, when we played. They all talk about our group coming through. But we didn’t play every game, we weren’t in every week with all the pressure on our shoulders,’ Butt said. ‘You look to your left and you’d have Roy Keane, you look to your right and you’d have Bryan Robson or Brian McClair,

‘You’re surrounded by unbelievable players and you think, it’s easy for me because I can play 6 out of 10 today and we’re still going to win because we’ve got all these players around us.

‘They don’t have that now. I do feel sorry for the players.’