Manchester United have accepted that Manuel Ugarte’s valuation has decreased two years on from his arrival.
Manuel Ugarte signed for Manchester United in a £42 million deal that included add-ons in 2024.
The Uruguayan’s form has been underwhelming in that time, with Ugarte failing to cement a place in United’s starting line-up.
Ugarte’s lack of starts under Michael Carrick this season suggests he is not part of the club’s long-term plans in midfield ahead of a revamp in the department.
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Man Utd willing to accept £25m bid for Manuel Ugarte
Ugarte is one of the players United are looking to move on this summer.
The others include Andre Onana, Marcus Rashford, and Joshua Zirkzee.
According to The Sun, Ugarte could be available for around £25 million, which is £17 million less than the Red Devils paid to sign him from PSG.
This essentially means United are prepared for a trade-off in terms of a PSR loss to get a cash flow boost.
Head of Football Finance and Governance at GRV Media, Adam Williams, breaks this down with the following explanation:
“From United’s perspective, you have to consider this from both a PSR, SCR or FFP perspective and, more importantly, in terms of cash flow. Let’s start with PSR.
“Ugarte signed on a five-year deal originally, meaning that £42m fee will have been amortised over five years for the purposes of Man United’s bottom line, which is what PSR bases its calculations on. And because the Premier League’s new revenue-based system, SCR, considers profit on player sales too – albeit through a different lens – it’s Ugarte’s remaining amortised book value that we need to look at to see what a £25m sale in terms does to United’s headroom under the spending rules. The same goes for UEFA’s financial rules, which use a similar methodology to the Premier League’s new system.
“Over a five-year deal, Ugarte’s amortised book value decreases by £8.4m annually, i.e., £42m divided by five. He’s two years into his five-year deal, so you subtract £16.8m from £42m to work out his remaining book value, which comes out as £25.2m.
“It’s that £25.2m figure which you use as your starting point to figure out the accounting profit or loss on a deal. So, if United sold him for £25m, they would make a £200,000 profit on the transaction.
“However, you’ve got to factor in agents’ fees too. Those will have been amortised in the transfer that brought him to United. Conservatively, let’s say the agents’ fees were £3m. You have to add the unamortised agents’ fees – which, in this example, would be £1.8m – to his book value, which then becomes £27m. So that £200,000 profit becomes a £2m loss, if £25m is the final sale price.
“All that said, United have plenty of headroom under both the Premier League and UEFA’s financial rules. What they really are more worried about is cash flow, i.e., the actual money coming into the club to pay the bills, consolidate the squad and so on – and that’s why they would consider selling Ugarte at an accounting loss. Accountancy is all smoke and mirrors, and the terms ‘profit’ or ‘loss’ in that context are used more as a kind of scorecard to assess the health of a business; they don’t reflect the actual cash that is going in or out of United’s bank account.
“If you sell an underperforming asset like Ugarte, you would save his wages and get a good chunk of that £25m fee up front. It’s cash flow where United have legitimate concerns, with or without European football. Therefore, they’ll happily take a PSR loss on a player if it means they actually generate more cold, hard cash.”
- ⚡️ NEWS IN BRIEF
- Manchester United need £25m to avoid a loss on Manuel Ugarte
- Ugarte cost United £42m from PSG in 2024
- Ugarte has struggled for game time at United
Was Manuel Ugarte that bad against Leeds, or is he just an easy scapegoat for bigger problems?
What is Andre Onana’s current value?
Onana joined Trabzonspor on loan this season.
Trabzonspor are keen to keep Onana, but they will need to meet United’s demands as well as the goalkeeper’s.
The same report from The Sun claims United would require £18.9m to avoid a loss on Onana, three years on from when he joined from Inter Milan.
United paid £47.2 million to sign Onana before he flopped at Old Trafford.
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