Manchester United’s transfer window might be off to a hot start with a potential two signings in before pre-season, but the road ahead looks difficult.
Thanks to the Glazers’ mismanagement, Man Utd’s financial situation is precarious, to put it kindly, and to buy any more players, they will need to sell.
Selling is not something Man United have excelled at in the last decade or so, which is why they’ll be grateful that they’ve just been helped by the very club that hurt their plans.
United have just been given the ideal asking price for their most important sale of the summer, which could charge their whole spending.
Man Utd given ideal Alejandro Garnacho asking price
A big reason why United have been slow to deal with Brentford over Bryan Mbeumo is because of the signing they’ve already made.
Brentford are holding Matheus Cunha’s £62.5m transfer fee as the standard, urging United to pay the same instalment as they’re doing for Cunha up front.
If that is how the transfer window operation is acceptable, then United can now work the same way with their sale of Alejandro Garnacho, thanks to Chelsea.
United’s asking price for Garnacho has been dismissed out of hand many times, mainly due to how the Argentinian has burned all bridges with the club.
However, now that Chelsea are set to pay £55m for Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, who is, ironically, the Jadon Sancho replacement, it strengthens United’s hand.
Nobody would argue that Bynoe-Gittens is a better or more proven player than Garnacho. Therefore, even though all the bridges are burned, this gives United a leg to stand on.
They can, and should, reject offers in the region of £40-50m out of hand and point to Chelsea’s bid for Bynoe-Gittens as a marker, just like Brentford have been doing for Mbeumo.
Man Utd now know the biggest deterrent to sales
In theory, £55m spent on Bynoe-Gittens should have consequences for players at Old Trafford beyond Garnacho as well.
After all, United have three players of the same kind on the transfer list alongside him- Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, and Antony.
However, the key difference between those three and Garnacho, especially the first two, is the kind of wages they are on.
Sancho and Rashford are such unique cases that United have to be prepared to keep loaning them while paying a portion of their salary until their contracts run out.
Nobody will pay them what they earn at Old Trafford, and that right there is the key deterrent to sales.
For Ineos, this is a lesson to be learned from the Glazers’ mistakes. Spend £100m on a player, and it won’t be a lost cause as long as he isn’t paid £300k/week.
Keep the wages under control, and the transfer fees will sort themselves automatically. If Bynoe-Gittens were on £200k/week, Chelsea wouldn’t be paying £55m for him.
United know that, because it happened with them for Sancho.
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