Manchester United Have Been Disappointing Sellers In The Transfer Window

It has been a torrid and unsettling summer for Manchester United, which has seen the club attract plenty of criticism throughout the transfer window.

But now as the window prepares to close on Thursday United have actually enjoyed a reasonably successful time in bringing new players to the club.

There was a period of mid-summer frustration when it appeared United were content with only doing some modest business, but in the last week they have added Casemiro from Real Madrid for £60 million, and on Tuesday confirmed the arrival of another Brazilian, the winger Antony from Ajax for a fee of around £84 million.

These two deals have seen United’s total spending pass £200 million for this summer, which as it stands would be more than any other Premier League club.

It also means the United board have backed their new manager Erik ten Hag with many of the players he requested as he starts to radically overhaul the club’s squad.

But where United have resoundingly failed this summer is in their efforts to sell players to boost their transfer funds.

As it stands, United have sold only two players for transfer fees, Andreas Pereira to Fulham for £10 million, and Dylan Levitt to Dundee United for only £300,000, which places them a lowly thirteenth in the Premier League table for transfer sales.

So far only Brentford, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Newcastle, Southampton, Leicester City and Bournemouth have brought in less money from player sales this summer.

Meanwhile all of United’s top six rivals have raised significantly more from sales this summer: Chelsea (£39 million), Tottenham (£34 million), Arsenal (£21 million), Liverpool (£72 million) and Manchester City (£143 million).

This is not a new problem for United as over the last five seasons between 2017 and 2021 they also rank thirteenth in the Premier League for profit on player sales.

They made a profit of £81 million during this period, which was dwarfed by the activities of several other clubs, including Chelsea (£413 million), Liverpool (£274 million), Leicester City (£243 million) and Manchester City (£221 million).

For too long now United have given lucrative contracts to peripheral squad players and then found it impossible to sell them as no other club is able to match their excessive wages.

United wanted to sell both Alex Telles and Eric Bailly this summer, but had to settle on loaning them to Sevilla and Marseille respectively as both clubs, who are in the Champions League, could not afford to cover a transfer fee and their wages.

Last summer United could have raised up to £60 million by selling Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard, but inexplicably held on to both players for another season, let them run down their contracts, and then saw them leave for nothing this summer.

There might be some late movement in the window to boost United’s funds as they are still looking for offers for James Garner, Brandon Williams and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Garner has drawn interest from Nottingham Forest, Everton and Southampton, with United looking for a fee of around £15 million, which would represent a clear profit on a player developed within their youth system.

However, any potential Wan-Bissaka departure would represent a major loss from the £50 million United paid to sign him from Crystal Palace three years ago.

United are hopeful of getting a fee of only around £15 million for the right-back, with his former club Palace and West Ham showing the most interest so far.