Manchester United’s rivals are looking to take advantage of the financial crisis - and shocking transfer record - at Old Trafford by offering instant cash to buy “sell-on clauses” for players who have left.
United have a recent history of departures thriving elsewhere, although they have protected themselves to a degree with clauses to give them a percentage of the profits when the player makes their next transfer.
Telegraph Sport is aware of multiple clubs who are now considering bids to have the clauses removed - earning them more long-term money for an immediate outlay, while also helping ease United’s financial pressures.
United have this week announced their “transformation plan” designed to return the club to profitability, after making losses since 2019. Their losses have seen them at risk of breaching Premier League profit-and-sustainability rules, with their homegrown players such as Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho now in the sights of Europe’s cash-rich clubs.
Omar Berrada, United’s chief executive, has announced up to 200 further redundancies as part of the club’s radical changes under co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe. The redundancies - with up to 39 per cent of the rank-and-file potentially leaving - has brought the club’s expenditures on failed transfers into sharp focus.
Even this season, players have thrived when they have moved away from United, including Mason Greenwood who has seen his transfer value soar at Marseille under Robert De Zerbi. The French club paid £26.6 million in the summer for his registration and will stand to make a huge profit on his next sale, with a large portion going to United. Hannibal Mejbri was another to move in the summer, to Burnley, and his sell-on was initially 50 per cent. Scott McTominay and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have also found form since moving to Napoli and West Ham in the summer.
It is understood that clubs with signings from United going back previous seasons have been looking at buying the clauses immediately, rather than waiting closer to the June 30 deadline when all PSR figures are accounted for.
