After spending nearly £100 million on two players (not all upfront) in the window, Manchester United are firmly in “sell to buy” situation.
It is why they have paused their chase of Matthijs de Ligt, and why creative options are being considered to complete a deal for Manuel Ugarte.
United have already made their sixth-biggest sale of all time by moving Mason Greenwood to Olympique Marseille but more is needed.
In the meantime, they will be extremely delighted to see that they could be in line for an unexpected windfall from a player sale made two years ago.
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Sir Jim Ratcliffe has stressed earlier that the financial situation is precarious where they can’t go around with a blank cheque to complete an overhaul in one summer.
It is why there is a concerted effort at shifting players even if it means taking a low fee upfront, like with Donny van de Beek.
They could get nearly 10 times Van de Beek’s upfront fee if recent developments cause a transfer to go through that doesn’t involve them.
Brazilian outlet Globo reports that Andreas Pereira is of interest to Chelsea, who are willing to spend as much as £35 million to get their man from Fulham.
United sold Pereira to Fulham in 2022 and he has since gone from strength to strength, establishing himself as a Brazilian international as well.
The fee United received at the time was just £10 million but they had inserted a sell-on clause of 20%, entitling them to a portion of the profit.
If Pereira gets sold for £35 million, then the profit on the sale is £25 million, 20% of which is £5 million, which will go into the books as pure profit.
Furthermore, since Fulham will want to keep the maximum money for themselves, they might even demand from, putting the ball in Chelsea’s court.
A “sell-on summer”
For United, this has become somewhat of a “sell-on summer” as they have tried to get the best deal out of selling distressed assets.
Pereira is a case in point about how it can benefit the club in the future if the player finds form after moving away from the surroundings.
There are sell-on clauses involved in the Mason Greenwood deal as well as Willy Kambwala and Donny van de Beek.
In Greenwood’s case, it is as much as 50%, which means United effectively control his future from a financial point of view. Had United sold Pereira for an even lower fee, while increasing the sell-on percentage, they could have made more.
However, as it stands, they will still expect to receive about £15 million in total for a player who never looked suited to United. Not a bad deal.
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/wVyZom9