“It is simple. To do something, we need to sell players.”
Ruben Amorim there, acknowledging publicly in February what he must have been saying behind closed doors for three months prior to that. Since then, his resolve to make major changes at Old Trafford can only have strengthened in the wake of United’s worst season in living memory, their wretched failures making it more imperative that the Red Devils finally learn how to sell.
Amorim has commenced his rebuild, paying £62million to get Matheus Cunha from Wolves and Man Utd will probably spend a similar sum on Bryan Mbeumo. Given the chance, Amorim might drop the same again on Viktor Gyokeres. All of which will make Man Utd a lot more fun to watch. But vibes won’t pay their bills.
The club’s financial situation is perhaps not as perilous as Sir Jim Ratcliffe might want us to believe while Man Utd go through another round of layoffs. It was thought that Amorim might have just shy of £100million to spend in the summer market before he had to raise funds through sales. Any two of the three aforementioned forwards would take Man Utd well over that budget.
So it’s time to sell, sell, sell. Something they are notoriously bad at. And the early signs suggest they are yet to catch on.
The Telegraph gave an insight into United’s sales strategy only last month. Apparently, the Red Devils believed they could rake in £90million by selling Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Antony.
At best, that was wishful thinking. At worst, another sign of the delusion and incompetence that has made Man Utd one of the biggest patsies in the European game.
United’s best hope with Sancho was they were dealing with Chelsea. If the Blues won’t do that deal, who will? Who is going to pay serious money for a barely-arsed big name, one with another year left on a massive contract who everyone knows Man Utd want shot of?
It is a similar story with Rashford. An unwanted, disinterested player on a huge salary. Any club tempted to give the England forward a fresh start would be daft to offer Man Utd anything more than the loan-first deal Villa initially agreed to then refused to follow through on.
Antony might be a more straightforward sale. Yes, at a price to shame United’s recruiters again but and even while offering a £60million hit, there is hardly a clamour, despite the Brazilian showing some signs of life at Real Betis.
Rather than bank £90million to put towards a rebuild, more likely is that two, maybe all three, will once more be loaned out, only after they have sulked around Carrington for some or much of pre-season, before Man Utd accept liability for significant portions of their salary.
That reality appears to have dawned on Man Utd if there’s any truth in the report that they have sought to fill some of that black hole by increasing their asking price for one of their more sellable assets.
However, we can only assume whomever forecasted a £90million deposit for their loan exiles also priced Alejandro Garnacho at £70million. Because that’s an equally nonsensical figure.
Garnacho is no more wanted than Sancho, Rashford, Antony. Less so, perhaps, given Amorim is more familiar with his flaws than the others’. And any club who might take a chance on the Argentina international knows it.
“You better pray that you can find a club to sign you,” Garnacho was told by Amorim during the Bilbao inquest. And, sure, it will serve the player to be elsewhere next season. But Man Utd ought to be the party dropping to their knees. Without divine intervention, they have no hope of raking in £70million for the maddeningly-inconsistent winger.
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Chelsea and Arsenal have both been linked with Garnacho, but both have cheaper, arguably better alternatives. Napoli, Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen all interested, are they? Not at that price, not while United’s desire to be rid of Garnacho is so well documented.
To furnish Amorim with the bare minimum he needs to jumpstart the Man Utd juggernaut on the road to credibility, the Red Devils must at least double the £100million they started with. Selling the four-man bomb squad is unlikely to achieve that, let alone rake in the £160million they anticipated.
Who else could Man Utd take to market? Bruno Fernandes scuppered whatever plans the club may have had to cash in on their captain. Many Man Utd fans, including Gary Neville, would be loathe to see Kobbie Mainoo sold to the highest bidder but the homegrown midfielder is one of few others over whom Man Utd could negotiate from a position of authority.
For the vast majority of Amorim’s squad, certainly those he wants rid of, it is a buyer’s market. And before long, a borrower’s one.
