Manchester City have exposed Manchester United’s transfer woes. While the Sky Blues are selling young talents for healthy profit margins the Red Devils are struggling to shift far more experienced players for handsome fees this summer.
This comes at a time in which United face considerable financial pressures. UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body recently fined Man Utd £256,744 for a “minor breakeven deficit” under its Financial Fair Play rules.
While Erik ten Hag’s transfer budget this summer has been restricted to just £170million. £55m of that has already been spent on Mason Mount with a further £47m expected to be forked out on Cameroonian shot-stopper Andre Onana, who completed his medical at the club on Thursday.
Ten Hag has £71m left to spend on a new No 9, a centre-back and a defensive midfielder – and so the need to generate funds through player sales is greater than ever.
But unlike their rivals Man City, who have managed to sell unproven youngsters like Shea Charles for £15m, Gavin Bazunu for £12m and Samuel Edozie for £10m in the last 12 months, United’s departures have been less than spectacular and highlight a real issue at the club.
Only one player has been sold this summer so far, Zidane Iqbal, who despite having similar experience to the aforementioned City academy graduates, was sold to FC Utrecht for a fraction of the price at just £1m.
Meanwhile, United could be about to make a £65m loss on skipper Harry Maguire and are expected to accept a £15m bid from Nottingham Forest for experienced Premier League goalkeeper and one-cap England international Dean Henderson.
