Forgotten Man Utd star offered to Premier League rival after asking to leave

Joshua Zirkzee has found Premier League football hard to come by this season with Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim favouring his summer signings over the Dutchman

Manchester United have made an offer to West Ham for a January deal for out-of-favour forward Joshua Zirkzee, it has been claimed. The Dutch international only moved to Old Trafford in the summer of 2024, but has found himself sidelined after another summer of spending.

Ruben Amorim brought in Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko over the summer, and the new trio – along with a fit again Mason Mount – have been preferred in the front three. Fellow frontmen Rasmus Hojlund and Marcus Rashford have already been offloaded by Amorim, initially on loan, and Zirkzee will be next.

The former Bologna star wants to leave, as Mirror Football revealed last week. He hasn’t started a single game in any competition this term, and has played a combined 23 minutes across United’s last six league games.

According to reports on the continent, Zirkzee’s preference is to stay in the Premier League. This could make West Ham an appealing prospect for a player keen for minutes as he chases a spot in the Netherlands’ World Cup squad if they get there.

The Euro 2024 semi-finalists need four points from their final two qualifying games, against Lithuania and Poland, to make sure of their World Cup spot. Zirkzee was part of his country’s Euros squad, and scored his first senior international goal in the UEFA Nations League in September 2024, but hasn’t featured in any of the World Cup qualifiers.

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West Ham sit 19th in the Premier League table after nine matches, but new manager Nuno Espirito Santo has yet to dip into the transfer market after replacing Graham Potter outside the summer window. The Hammers have scored just seven goals in the league this term, with only Nottingham Forest scoring fewer.

The London club spent more than £100m over the summer but their only new strikers were free agent Callum Wilson and Scottish youngster Daniel Cummings. Wilson has played just once under Nuno, coming on as a first-half substitute in Friday’s defeat at Leeds, and Cummings has yet to make his senior debut.

United boss Amorim acknowledged the lack of minutes for some of his players earlier in the month, but stopped short of guaranteeing January exits for either Zirzkee or Kobbie Mainoo. “That is normal, and I also know that in our club, everything is a lot of noise, and you have to have news, and players are not playing,” he said.

“They want to play. Like you said, there’s a World Cup. There are agents that listen to the players talking all the time. So, I understand that but they are our players, and we need everyone to have a good season.”

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