Manchester United’s record in the transfer market has hardly been a ringing endorsement of the club’s officials pre-Ineos.
However, the winds of change have blown this summer under Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s new-look recruitment and executive team.
More than getting the players in, in which there has been a marked improvement, there was a more urgent need to sell well.
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Rival clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea always manage to somehow stay in the green due to the sheer amount they manage form selling their players, something at which Manchester United have infamously been bad.
Until now, as Ineos have started course correction on this too, with the club standing on the verge of completing one of their biggest-ever sales.
Manchester United close to Scott McTominay transfer
Manchester United’s late push in the transfer market promises to be a busy one and it has kickstarted with an agreement for Scott McTominay’s transfer.
Manchester United have accepted a bid of about £25.4 million for the Scottish midfielder from Napoli, with personal terms yet to be agreed. It could amount to a profit of nearly £125 million on the books.
Those are not expected to be an issue as United always tend to do right by their academy products, while the McTominay is also looking forward to working under Antonio Conte.
The fee is an unequivocal win for Ineos‘ new executive team as they have managed to get their asking price at the end despite various twists and turns in the process.
That fee might not seem much at first glance, especially in the context of the sums United themselves have spent on duds in the last decade.
However, one look at Manchester United’s biggest-ever sales makes it clear how uphill of a task Ineos have undertaken at Old Trafford when it comes to selling well.
Where McTominay’s transfer fee ranks
McTominay’s reported transfer fee of £25.4 million would catapult him straight into the top five biggest sales of all time at Manchester United.
The leader of that group is, predictably, Cristiano Ronaldo, whose sale in 2009 still stands head and shoulders above everyone else.
Following him is Romelu Lukaku and Angel di Maria, and McTominay’s fee goes right behind the trio.
If there was ever a statement to hammer home how bad at selling the previous regime was, it is putting McTominay’s transfer fee, with a year to turn on his contract (plus a club option), stands right besides Ronaldo, Lukaku, and Di Maria at fourth position.
He overtakes Dan James, who was sold to Leeds United in 2021 for a fee of £25 million. Including Greenwood’s transfer, two of United’s top ten biggest sales have come in this window.
- Cristiano Ronaldo: £80 million
- Romelu Lukaku: £73 million
- Angel di Maria: £44 million
- Scott McTominay: £25.4 million
McTominay’s sale ranks above David Beckham’s in 2003 to Real Madrid at £24.5 million, where he now becomes Manchester United’s most expensive academy graduate sale ever.
Mason Greenwood’s sale could eventually surpass McTominay’s. He was sold for £23 million which could rise to £26 million with add-ons.
Considering the circumstances and contract situations in which both of those players were when they were sold, it is a masterstroke by Ineos.
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