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Coming into the summer transfer window, new United co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, set out a plan with the new sporting director Dan Ashworth to generate more transfer funds.
Initially the transfer budget was set at £50 million, a relatively small budget for such a big team.
So a plan was hatched between the two consisting of seven players that the club could offload in order to generate more funds for their priority targets this summer.
Ratcliffe has previously reported that the full rebuild project will need to go through three summer transfer windows before the squad are back to full strength to be consistently competing at the top of world football. In order to achieve this, every transfer window counts, especially his first one.
The pair identified Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Casemiro, Christian Eriksen, Antony, Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood as the seven to be offloaded this summer in an attempt to raise £200 million towards complying with profit and sustainability rules and transfer funds.
Now, United appear to be on the brink of their first sale with one of their priority departures kickstarting the way towards the £200 million they’re aiming for.
The deal that looks to be starting it all off is the imminent departure of Mason Greenwood from Old Trafford.
For a number of weeks it’s been unknown as to where Greenwood’s future would lie, with a number of sides interested in the United academy graduate. Top European clubs like Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Lazio, Napoli and Fenerbahce have all declared their interest, with loads more known to be anonymously interested due to the controversial nature of Greenwood’s suspension.
The recent front runner and the winger’s preferred next club though is Marseille, the Ligue 1 side who have swooped in and exceeded Lazio‘s bid.
David Ornstein of The Athletic has recently reported that the French club have now agreed terms with the 22-year-old who must now travel to Marseille to take part in a medical assessment before signing his new contract.
So how does this deal fit towards Ratcliffe and Ashworth’s plans?
Well the agreement with United has been for a total of €31.6 million (£26.7 million), made up of €27.6 million (£23.3 million) fixed and €4 million (£3.4 million) in add-ons, plus a big percentage of any future sale.
It’s unsure as to what the future sale percentage looks like, however with deal as it is, United are on their way to their target, leaving £173.3 million to come from the remaining six sales.
Whilst this looks like a lot still to generate, we are aware of some interest in three of the remaining six on the list which will help towards this target.
The latest buzz around Jadon Sancho is that Juventus are extremely keen in signing the winger, however are just waiting on sales to go through in order to generate the funds to put an official bid in for the 24-year-old. With United valuing the England international at between £30 million and £40 million, this could take the total of the “cull list” returns to anywhere between £56.7 million and £66.7 million.
Whilst we’re aware of Turkish giants Fenerbahce being interested in defender Victor Lindelof, no price tag has been released as of yet for his services.
Which leads us to the big one, Casemiro. The Brazilian veteran of the game is been linked with a mega-money move to Saudi side Al-Nassr. The reunion with two-time former teammate Cristiano Ronaldo will reportedly bring in £75.5 million and £84 million (between €90 million and €100 million) accounting for nearly half of Ratcliffe’s target on his own.
This grand total from the three known figures would put United’s transfer earning between the region of £132.2 million and £150.7 million, leaving only between £49.3 million and £67.8 million to come from the combined sales of Antony, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire and Christian Eriksen.
Whether all seven will be sold this summer is a different matter, however it certainly looks like the first of the list is as good as done.
