{"id":634141,"date":"2024-01-17T09:15:31","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T14:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=634141"},"modified":"2024-01-17T09:15:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T14:15:31","slug":"manchester-united-joshua-zirkzee-summer-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/17\/manchester-united-joshua-zirkzee-summer-target\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;First Talks Have Taken Place&#8217;: Man Utd Identify &#8216;Extraordinary&#8217; Serie A Star As Serious Summer Target"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United are having a nightmare in terms of scorring goals in the 2023\/24 Premier League season and have only netted 24 times in 21 matches so far. As a result, the club are looking at options to fix their issues and it looks like they have found a potential target in Netherlands striker Joshua Zirkzee.<\/p>\n<h2>Manchester United Identify Joshua Zirkzee As Summer Target<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Watch:\u00a0<\/strong>Manchester United in CRISIS<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Manchester United in CRISIS - What&#039;s Happening Under Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford?\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LxwO_OdlmOk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Have United Had Any Talks for Zirkzee Deal?<\/h3>\n<p>Sky Sports Germany&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Plettigoal\/status\/1747267078439252393\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Florian Plettenberg<\/a> has reported that the Red Devils are considering the Bologna forward as a serious summer transfer target and one they will look to sign after the end of the ongoing campaign. It is said that &#8220;first talks have taken place&#8221; over a possible deal being done in the summer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2023\/12\/28\/andre-onana-afcon-manchester-united-bayindir\/\" target=\"_self\">Manchester United\u2019s \u00a347 Million Star Called Up For AFCON Despite World Cup Expulsion &amp; Samuel Eto Row: Who Is His Replacement Altay Bayindir?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>However, Plettenberg adds that many clubs are monitoring the development of the 22-year-old striker, who is enjoying a prolific campaign in the Serie A. The journalist claims that Zirkzee&#8217;s former club Bayern Munich are among those who are monitoring his progress but that a return for him at the Bundesliga club is unlikely for the time being. It appears that United have been impressed by the 22-year-old&#8217;s performances and feel that he can improve their frontline next season.<\/p>\n<h3>Will United Sign Anyone In January?<\/h3>\n<p>The Red Devils have only been involved in exits in the January transfer window. They have been able to loan out Jadon Sancho to his former side Borussia Dortmund through the end of the campaign and Hannibal Mejbri is <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1746599945380012321\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reportedly<\/a> set for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/15\/manchester-united-hannibal-mejbri-sevilla-loan\/\" target=\"_self\">a loan spell<\/a> at Sevilla.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/01\/09\/facundo-pellistri-manchester-united-exit\/\" target=\"_self\">\u2018Negotiations Are Starting\u2019: Clubs Vying For \u2018Spectacular\u2019 Manchester United Player<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/sport\/football\/man-utd-transfer-news-sir-jim-ratcliffe-kane-b1132331.html?utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1705314378\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported<\/a> that United have major plans to sign multiple players in the summer transfer window and that they want a top-class forward who is of the same calibre as Bayern Munich star Harry Kane. Zirkzee has scored eight goals and provided four assists in all competitions for Bologna this season, which is not close to Kane&#8217;s 26 goals for the Bavarians in his debut campaign. However, the 22-year-old, who has been hailed for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.soccerodd.com\/news\/motta-praising-the-accurate-zirkzee-he-works-very-hard-for-it\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">his &#8220;extraordinary qualities&#8221;<\/a> still has his best years ahead of him and could bring more variety to the Red Devils&#8217; attack if they sign him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United are having a nightmare in terms of scorring goals in the 2023\/24 Premier League season and have only netted 24 times in 21 matches so far. As a result, the club are looking at options to fix their issues and it looks like they have found a potential target in Netherlands striker Joshua [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4218,"featured_media":632595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,18,7188],"tags":[7380],"class_list":["post-634141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-premier-league","category-manchester-united","category-rumours","tag-manchester-united-transfer-rumours"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}