Manchester United are setting their eyes on an ambitious Aurelien Tchouameni swoop, but it’s complicated due to their £45m lost budget.
Having signed Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans for a combined £85m, conventional wisdom suggests that Man Utd will make a big splash for the third midfielder.
The position needs an injection of star quality, and defensive midfielders don’t come much better than Aurelien Tchouameni.
However, conventional wisdom didn’t account for the lost £45m United were taking for granted this summer.
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Man Utd’s lost £45m with two players
Under Ineos, Man Utd have operated in a largely set pattern, where the net spend of the window ends at around £150m or so.
They spend north of £200m on transfers, and try to recoup around £100m from sales, which is what has happened in the two summers under their ownership.
With UCL football this season, the margin for spending was assumed to be even higher, but it hasn’t shaped up that way so far.
Their net spend sits at a measly £51m, with the sale of Rasmus Hojlund for £38m the only major outgoing so far.
When starting this summer, United would have thought an additional £45m would be in the bank by now.
Barcelona would have triggered their buy option worth £25m for Marcus Rashford, and Manuel Ugarte would have been sold for around £20m.
Those sales would have put United’s net spend at almost zero, with five players through the door (Santos, Tielemans, Tynan Thompson, Karl Darlow, Kit Margetson), setting themselves up for a massive finish to the window.
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However, both Rashford and Ugarte remain Man Utd players, and the opportunity cost worth £45m is a major hole in the budget.
Man Utd hesitant on going big on Aurelien Tchouameni
That £45m could end up being the difference between United crossing the £100m mark for Tchouameni, or haggling at £75m.
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Furthermore, the departure of Rashford and Ugarte would have clearly nearly half-a-million off the wage bill, making it easier to present Tchouameni with a salary close to what Bruno Fernandes gets.
Therefore, the opportunity cost from Rashford and Ugarte staying at Old Trafford is far bigger than just the transfer fees United would have received for them.
It is complicating the deal for their most important target – the marquee midfielder who slots alongside Kobbie Mainoo and starts every week.
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