Bologna are about to be stripped bare in the 2024/25 summer transfer window. The latest reports indicate that the club are about to lose Joshua Zirkzee.
The club secured UEFA Champions League football for the first time in decades and immediately lost their manager Thiago Motta, to Juventus. They are currently battling to keep star defender Riccardo Calafiori and now, Zirkzee could be on his way out.
The Athletic, one of the best sources for English football transfer news, has reported that the Italian club are about to lose the Netherlands international to Manchester United after the club and the player agreed terms of a transfer.
The Red Devils have already agreed personal terms and agent fees with Zirkzee’s people but they are now negotiating a transfer fee. The former Bayern Munich youth player’s contract at Bologna has a release clause worth €40 million (£34 million) which United are hoping to avoid paying.
The Athletic reports that Bologna are insisting that the clause must be met if the striker will leave them ahead of the 2024/25 season. This is proving to be a stumbling block for United, who only have to sign cheques to finalise their first transfer of the window.
United are believed to be weighing the options before them. One is to trigger the release clause and another is to negotiate a transfer fee for the striker.
According to the report, United consider Zirkzee as the perfect replacement for Anthiny Martial, who left the club in the summer. Danish striker Rasmus Højlund is the only striker in the squad and he will need competition to help him get better. Martial, while brilliant, was barely enough competition because of his constant injuries that saw him spend more time in the hospital than in training with Højlund.
United also need another striker because the team’s top goalscorers from last season were not strikers. They have not had a striker finish as their top goalscorer in a while, something that Manchester City and other clubs are enjoying.
Zirkzee’s transfer will be the first signing of the INEOS era. The club intend to finalise this in the coming week before moving on to other transfer targets among which are a centre back and a different midfielder.
Meanwhile, United have completed the transfer of Donny van de Beek to Girona for a record low price of €500,000.
van de Beek has suffered since joining United from Ajax. Poor management as well as niggling injury spells have seen him outside the team more than any player in the squad.
They sent him on loan to Eintracht Frankfurt but it was not enough to get him back on track. Girona believe they can fix him and have paid an initial €500,000 fornthe player.
However, that is not what they could earn from the sale of the 27-year-old. The fee could rise up to €5 million if he plays a certain number of games and rise up to €15 million of he achieves otjer thing while at the club.
