Van de Beek transfer price keeps United’s door open for Jadon Sancho

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Manchester United are close to wrapping up the signing of Ajax midfielder Donny van de Beek.

The Telegraph report a fee has been agreed worth £39.3 million.

This is great value for the Dutch international, who scored in the Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals in 2019.

At just 23-years-old, Van de Beek is versatile, talented, and hard working, and fits the profile of player Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wants at Manchester United.

Most interestingly, his signing keeps the door open for Jadon Sancho to sign too.

Flexible finances

One of United’s alternatives was to sign Jack Grealish from Aston Villa. After he helped them stay up on the final day of the season, this move became very unlikely.

The Times reported Villa wanted £80 million. That just did not fit in with the rest of United’s transfer business.

Van de Beek is a signing who allows United the financial room to sign Jadon Sancho too. Going big for Grealish would have made it near impossible.

Dortmund have been resolute that they want £108 million for Sancho. But as BILD report, they are open to a payment in installments.

This means United may only need to commit around £70 million this summer for the England international.

There is still a long way to go with the Sancho deal, but as the Van de Beek negotiations have shown, developments can move rapidly once United start moving.

Player sales help too

Sancho is still a considerable investment to add to Van de Beek, but player sales can help.

The likes of Chris Smalling, Andreas Pereira, Jesse Lingard, Diogo Dalot, Sergio Romero and Phil Jones will all be available and United can claw back funds.

This could even allow for a third signing on top of Sancho, dependent on the state of United’s finances.

If Sancho is not do-able, then we could see three or four players arrive still this summer.

That’s what makes the Van de Beek deal so good. He is an impressive player who adds competition to the team in a key area, and does not take up the entire budget.

There is room for more similarly priced deals, or one big one. And United would have been silly to rule that out.

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