Cristiano Ronaldo admission shows why Man United boss Erik ten Hag is tracking Rasmus Hojlund

Harry Kane might well be Erik ten Hag’s number one summer transfer target but the Manchester United manager knows he will need fallback options.

He had only need cast his eye back a few years to see how rivals Manchester City were left pained by the England captain’s Tottenham contract renewal after a summer-stretched chase. If Antonio Conte got one thing right at Spurs it was his assessment of Kane - his love for the club runs deep.

It means, despite being trophyless at age 29, the club-and-country all-time top scorer is not a dead cert for a transfer, even though he still does not know who his next Spurs boss will be. United will need to play their cards right and not get dragged into another fruitless pursuit as they did with Frenkie de Jong.

READ MORE: United keeping tabs on Hojlund

By which time, fellow consideration Victor Osimhen could have sealed a move elsewhere, while there is no guarantee that shortlisted Mohammed Kudus and Goncalo Ramos will still be available.

The Manchester Evening News understands that Ten Hag is keeping tabs on both Frankfurt striker Randal Kolo Muani and Rasmus Højlund of Atalanta. The latter has 14 goals this season, six of which came with previous employers Sturm Graz.

He also has five goals in four Denmark caps, scoring a hat-trick against Finland before grabbing both goals in his country’s shock 3-2 defeat to Kazakhstan in their Euro 2024 qualifiers this international break.

Being a tall, blonde-haired Scandinavian, comparisons with Erling Haaland have already been made. But there is a key difference between Hojlund and boyhood City fan Haaland that makes him a solid fallback option.

"Now that you ask, I will not hide the fact that I am a huge Manchester United fan," he recently