Sheffield United offered Napoli £9m to take Hirving Lozano on loan this season – according to Tuttosport in Italy, at least.
Lozano was out of favour under Gennaro Gattuso for much of last term and it was thought the Mexican would leave the Serie A club.
However, the forward managed to play his way back into Gattuso’s plans and has started both games so far in 2020/21, scoring twice.
Yet that didn’t stop the Blades and Paris Saint-Germain apparently making an approach for the 25-year-old ahead of this term.
It was said they were willing to pay £9m for a 12-month deal. It is described as a “dry loan”, meaning there would be no view to make the move permanent.
Would Sheffield United have offered this for Lozano?
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The truth is, of course, that we don’t know for certain. But with a limited budget it seems highly unlikely United would be willing to pay such a large amount for a loanee. With no option to buy.
Lozano is obviously a fine player and would have been quite the coup for the South Yorkshire side. The Mexico international has the ability to play anywhere in the front line and has scored 10 goals in 39 caps for his country.
Prior to moving to Naples last summer, Lozano netted 40 times in 79 appearances for PSV Eindhoven.
Yet a £9m loan doesn’t seem to make much sense for the Blades. It’s recently been reported they can’t afford to meet Preston North End’s £10m asking price for Ben Davies, for instance.
As it was, they did go onto pay a club record £23.5m fee (BBC Sport) to Liverpool for Rhian Brewster. However, that is far more of an investment for a 20-year-old with plenty of potential.
Lozano has instead gone onto become a key player for Napoli once again. Whether there was ever any interest from Bramall Lane may never be truly known.