Hirving Lozano’s former agent has teased that his client could very well end up at Manchester United next season.
The Mexican international has been with Napoli since 2019 and still has three years remaining on his current deal. However, as one of the club’s highest paid players, Lozano - also known as Chucky - could be moved on in order to slash the wage bill.
United boss Erik ten Hag is still in the early stages of his Old Trafford rebuild, having been through one transfer window since replacing Ralf Rangnick. During that time, a host of senior players left the club, with more than £200million-worth of talent coming the other way.
But the Dutchman has admitted that it will take some time for the team to truly start functioning as he wishes, after an up-and-down start in the Red Devils dugout. It is expected United will be somewhat quieter in the January window, before he is again heavily backed at the end of his first season in charge.
And Lozano’s ex-representative Alessandro Monfrecola has revealed that the 27-year-old’s dream is to play in the Premier League, with all signs pointing towards an amicable exit in 2023. Everton are another side to have previously been linked, with the Toffees enquiring about Lozano when Carlo Ancelotti was still in charge.
“Next June, Lozano will leave in my opinion, also because he earns over 4 million at Napoli,” Monfrecole told Gonfia la Rete.
“Although he is delighted to be here, he has never hidden that he aspired to the top English clubs, although now he is probably realising that Napoli itself is a top club. He has never hidden that he loves Barcelona and Real Madrid, but unless Ancelotti falls in love with him again, he has no market.”
He added: “I think he could land in Manchester United or Everton. This does not exclude that other English teams could enter the negotiation. My personal prediction is that he will leave in June, but he is very happy here.”
United’s resurgence under Ten Hag - which had seen them win four league games on the spin - was emphatically halted last time out, as they were thrashed 6-3 by neighbours City. The defeat brought into focus the deficiencies still in the squad, in particular the lack of press from his forwards - a trademark of his successful Ajax teams.
But he has told supporters that the process of moulding the team into exactly what he is after is a process that won’t happen overnight.
"It's more, it's physical, it's mental," Ten Hag said. "It's also sustainability, especially. It's like a routine, a way of life and you have to bring it to every training in your system, as a squad and as an individual player.
"And when you had a lack of it in the last years, it's not something that you build or progress in a week or a month, now it's a system that has to be and a demand in nowadays top football.
He added: "And it's quite clear City is the standard in that. There are more teams. But I also think we can deliver that, we have seen it against Liverpool and we have seen it against Arsenal.
"Now we have to do it on a consistent basis, that is what we have to work for now. But it will not come overnight, it will also take more than weeks, it will take months."
