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The Dutch boss revealed that Kane was their numero uno target, but alas, Tottenham slammed the door shut on any potential move, leaving United in the lurch.
And to add salt to the wound, Kane eventually sauntered off to Bayern Munich, leaving United to shuffle their deck and opt for young blood, splurging a hefty £72m on Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta.
Despite splashing hundreds of millions of pounds in recent transfer windows, Manchester United have failed to attract the best players in the world to Old Trafford.
This has resulted in a decline in performance and output, with Man United set to finish outside of the Premier League’s top five this season.
A frustrated Ten Hag lamented the missed opportunity to bolster his squad, especially missing out on the likes of Kane.
“This club can only have outstanding players because the expectations are so high,” he said in an interview with Sky Sports. “Everyone has an opinion about Manchester United, and it can only be outstanding players.
“There’s an expectation around every game from us, so you can only fulfil that expectation when you have those outstanding players. But in the last decade and in this period, we couldn’t always get the players we wanted.
“But then you have to build, and you have to accept that you get talent in instead of players who already proved it in the past. We have had some choices made with talents like Rasmus Hojlund.
“I can see a striker who already proved it, who we want to sign, and we couldn’t get him. And then we went to Rasmus because he’s a talent.”
Ten Hag, grappling to keep his job amidst Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new regime, emphasized that Hojlund shouldn’t be equated with England’s goal-scoring maestro Kane, urging patience for the former to blossom.
Yet, he cautioned that United’s journey back to glory might be protracted owing to their waning allure in the transfer market, a trend extending over the past decade, including his own tenure.
Confirming their prior pursuit of Kane, Ten Hag admitted, “Yes, and you know Harry Kane will get you 30 goals. I think Rasmus will get there, but he needs time.
“It’s not fair to assess him the same as Harry Kane. I would never compare two players because they are very different. But with Hojlund, I think we had the biggest potential in the striker position last summer, and we are very happy with him.”
Sixth-place Manchester United have scored only 52 goals in 34 games in the Premier League this season, a joint-lowest among the division’s top ten clubs.
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