Inside Manchester United’s Game-Changing Transfer Move That No One Saw Coming
When Ajax demanded £86 million for Antony, a winger who was valued at half of that just a few months earlier, United paid it. When Leicester held out for £80m for Harry Maguire, a fee deemed way too much by Man City, United folded.
United’s wage structure was a mess
Worse than the transfer fees, however, was the wage structure. To convince world-class names to join a Europa League-level project, United handed out astronomical long-term contracts.
Alexis Sanchez was on nearly £500,000 a week, and David De Gea became the highest-paid goalkeeper in history. Despite constant rumours of a departure for the Spaniard, this created the sort of financial paralysis that crippled the club for a decade. When a player underperformed, United couldn’t sell them. No club in Europe – only pretty much Saudi Arabia – was willing to match the wages of United’s benchwarmers. Players like Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, and Eric Bailly sat on high salaries for years, eroding their market value to zero while soaking up big chunks of the wage budget.
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