In fact, when Hojlund arrived in Rome for his medical, he still hadn’t even agreed to join Napoli.
Part of Hojlund’s motivation stemmed from his belief that he was better than the center-forward Manchester United had agreed to pay €85 million for. He thought that even though Benjamin Šeško had joined, showing such ability in training might make Ruben Amorim think twice after his departure.
However, the reason behind this decision was Hojlund’s poor performance in front of goal last season—he scored 10 goals in 52 games, with only 4 of those coming in the Premier League.
Within Manchester United, Hojlund represented the past; the club had paid an excessively high transfer fee for him. Hojlund had been signed by previous recruitment department staff in a different manner than Joshua Zirkzee, who joined last summer, so his transfer fee became a major point of criticism.
At the age of 22, Hojlund realized his Old Trafford dream was over, and his heart was broken—especially since he had been looking forward to continuing that dream before the start of pre-season.
This incident exposed the lack of empathy in the actions of Jim Ratcliffe, Jean-Claude Blanc, Darren Fletcher, and Ruben Amorim.
Nevertheless, they did make some concessions. During a meeting in Chicago, Hojlund was told that Manchester United would sign a new striker, but he was not directly informed that the club planned to sell him.
This information gap was reportedly because they considered Hojlund a "good guy." At that time, Manchester United had narrowed down their options to Benjamin Šeško and Ollie Watkins.
On July 29, Hojlund attended a community event at Soldier Field (home of the Chicago Fire) alongside Luke Shaw and André Onana. He played football with the children and showed a few smiles, but off-camera, he appeared somewhat dejected. That night, Manchester United made progress in the transfer for Šeško.
This tense atmosphere persisted until the final weekend of the transfer window, when Hojlund had to let people know he would be leaving, going against his instincts.
AC Milan, RB Leipzig, and several other clubs including Inter Milan all showed strong interest in him, but he ultimately chose Serie A champions Napoli, where he would be reunited with Ballon d’Or nominee Scott McTominay.
After Romelu Lukaku suffered a thigh injury in August, Antonio Conte had been pushing hard to sign Hojlund.
Manchester United chose 22-year-old Šeško over 29-year-old Watkins, citing Šeško’s age and the club’s history of goalscorers in the Premier League such as Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.
This was a collective decision, but it is said that given his experience at Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig, Manchester United’s director of football recruitment, Christoph Wieland, felt he bore a special responsibility for it.
When Liverpool began approaching Hugo Ékitiké, Manchester United did scout the player, but they were too late; and once Newcastle United started negotiations, their pursuit of Šeško accelerated.
