It’s Gettin’ Better, Man!! United’s revamped Transfer Policy

Going into a season having finished eighth, some might say this summer transfer window was critical, for a few reasons:

• The new ownership had assembled a board constituting the best in the business, some of whom even cost the club a lot of money. Yes, they come with good CVs but in football you’re only as good as your last job, and this new board is being paid to fix the deeply broken United structure, which requires new players.

• Despite an abysmal league campaign, the board kept faith in the current manager and not only demonstrated their confidence in him with a new contract, but backed it up by giving him his choice of backroom staff; from assistant manager to the goalkeeping and attacking coaches.

• Not giving the manager his choice of players at the end of all this means he won’t be able to execute his style of play, or produce the desired level of performances and results in order to achieve short-term and long-term objectives.

The academy

The INEOS team started by hitting the reset button on the academy dynamics. The club facilitated either good loan opportunities or sales for players who were struggling for minutes or exposure. What if they turn out great? Wouldn’t it be a mistake? Valid questions, but they seemed to have a clear vision.

This sales were mostly factored in with sell-on clauses, buy-back clauses, first right of refusal or matching clauses. This means that, whatever happens, United will likely benefit in the future. It also makes room for fresh talent to be recruited and gives the opportunity for the current crop to try and truly realise their potential, benefitting the club two-fold. The sheer number of departures tells the story:

• Willy Kambwala – Villarreal, £9.6m

• Will Fish – Cardiff, £2m

• Omari Forson – Monza, free

• Charlie McNeill – Sheffield Wednesday, free

• Marcus Lawrence – Released

• Kie Plumley – Released

• Shola Shoretire – PAOK, free

• Tom Huddlestone – Retired

• Joe Hugill – Wigan, loan

• Radek Vitek – FC Blau Weiss Linz, loan

• Elyh Harrison – Chester FC, loan

• Rhys Bennett – Fleetwood Town, loan

• Sonny Aljofree – Accrington Stanley, loan

• James Nolan – Inverness, loan

• Tom Wooster – Farsley Celtic, loan

Eliminating problems

The first team had more problems than solutions, ranging from tense player-manager relations to a bloated wage structure. Manchester United has rightly been accused of recently trying to fit square pegs into round holes by acquiring ageing, overpaid stop-gap players whose talents are starting to fade away, or picking from whatever free agents are available.

In the past this had led to us dishing out unsustainable contracts to players who will need replacing in a year or two, but couldn’t be as a result of their unreasonably high wages. Look at Casemiro. In all likelihood he’s going nowhere due to his huge £350,000/week salary, yet is costing United on the pitch. Not under the new regime.

Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood were two off-the-field issues that were a litmus test to the character and principles of the club. The club’s position on Greenwood was absolutely clear right from the start and no amount of outside noise – nor Greenwood’s prodigious talent – was going to make them acquiesce, and they quickly negotiated his departure. Full marks to them for this.

Sancho was given his fair share of time and space to settle in and find form. He was even offered an unprecedented rehabilitation period in the Netherlands to recover from his mental health issues, despite his exhibition of unprofessionalism costing the team time and subjecting the manager to a lot of unnecessary pressure when the team was already starved of goals.

The club stood firm that an exit would be negotiated on their terms with a loan that includes an obligation to buy to Chelsea – I believe the primary objective was to improve the dressing room mood. His huge wages are offloaded and a loan for this season also ensures his absence in matches against us. Despite calls to replace him in our thin list of attacking options, the club once again stood firm on the right profile of necessary and planned recruitment. 

Recruitment and sales

We have primarily recruited players who have been strategically identified according to our needs. Relatively young players who want to be here now and in the future; players who aren’t just money-motivated but want to play and fight for our club – a well-defined profile.

As a result, the fees and wages paid have been quite reasonable too. It has not been affected by fan voices, transfer prices, selling club tactics or deadline-day panic buying. We have stood our ground, concluded business quickly where we can well in time for pre-season, or played the waiting game very smartly in order to not get ripped off. For the first time United also recruited youth talent directly from the African continent as well as from established traditional youth academies across Europe.

There are purchases in all positions required that directly raise the floor of the squad and elevate the ceiling of the first team

INS

• Leny Yoro – Lille, £58.9m

• Joshua Zirkzee – Bologna, £36.5m

• Matthijs de Ligt – Bayern, £42.7m

• Noussair Mazraoui – Bayern, £17.1m

• Sékou Koné – Guidars FC, £1m

• Manuel Ugarte – PSG, £50m

The club has also generated record revenue from sales, an unimaginable feat considering our reputation. 

OUTS

• Alvaro Fernandez – Benfica, £5.1m

• Mason Greenwood – OM, £26.6m

• Donny van de Beek – Girona, £7.6m

• Aaron Wan-Bissaka – West Ham, £15m

• Facundo Pellistri – Panathinaikos, £6.8m

• Hannibal Mejbri – Burnley, £9.4m

• Scott McTominay – Napoli, £25.7m

• Jadon Sancho – Chelsea FC, loan with obligation to buy ~ £25m

• Anthony Martial – Released

• Raphael Varane – Released

• Brandon Williams – Released

Making it work

Despite so much work, there still remains a lot more to be done. Erik Ten Hag has been backed by the board with support and signings, and has now got to make it happen.

We will still need to strengthen our bench in midfield and improve the first team in full-back and forward areas. There are also players who still need to be sold but years and millions worth of mistakes can’t be fixed in a few months. Little by little, over the course of several seasons, we will hopefully build the next United team that can win the league.

It was also very refreshing to see the calm and composed attitude of the club throughout, with officials even attending the Europa League draw on deadline day while pursuing multiple deals simultaneously. Football people taking questions from media on football matters is hopefully a sign of things to come, whereby everything is not just left to the mercy of number-crunching business suits. The board certainly seems to have a masterplan; whether it can be executed is a different story.

The club has given us more hope, more than we have seen or could’ve imagined a few months ago. Now it’s time for the players and the manager to prove their worth on the pitch. Hopefully irritating injuries or silly individual errors won’t hold us back too much because there are miles to go before we get back to where we rightly belong.

For now, we’ve definitely taken a massive step in the right direction.

“There we were. Now here we are.”