Manchester United fans are waiting patiently for confirmation of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Ineos Group’s partial takeover of the club, with that news being expected at some point in the next few days, but at the beginning of the week we also had confirmation that we had made a formal offer in effect for Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth.
The 52-year-old had formally requested to be freed from his existing contract (expires 2025), and Newcastle responded by placing him on gardening leave and confirming that their search for a new sporting director was now underway. From our perspective, it should only be a matter of time and come down to simply striking a suitable compensation package. Those on The Punters Page will have fun working out what that final fee could be.
Whilst they are both hugely positive steps as we look towards major change over the summer, with renewed hope for our aspirations in the 2024/25 campaign, and those changes in and of itself raise major questions about the makeup of potentially both the management team and the playing squad.
Whilst some questions will remain unanswered for a good few months yet, as obviously this season will occupy more time on the priority scale, some decisions on the playing side of life do basically answer themselves with a logical educated guess.
One of those questions is the future of Mason Greenwood. After all of the off-pitch issues the 22-year-old United Academy graduate had that were well covered by the wider media, in August 2023 it was confirmed that we would be parting company with the one capped England international, and as a more immediate solution, he was loaned to Spanish side Getafe for the rest of the campaign.
He has been one of the La Liga side’s best performers so far this year, chipping in with ten goal contributions from his 22 games across all competitions so far (five goals and five assists), and his performances for them are certainly attracting addition suitors, with Barcelona and Atletico Madrid now being heavily linked with him on the Spanish media rumour mill.
It is now being claimed that with greater options for his services now seeming to present themselves for a summer deal to take place, that as Ratcliffe’s official arrival nears, the Red Devils have placed a basic valuation of around the £34 million mark on his head as a starting point for negotiations to begin.
Getafe were one of few teams interested at the start of the season, but with more options available it seems our new management team have already strongly indicated that Greenwood’s future continues to remain away from Old Trafford, but that we simply feel we are now in a better position to demand a greater fee, that better suits our own plans moving forward.
Given his status as a former Academy graduate, any transfer fee received for him would count far more for our Financial Fair Play calculations than a non Academy sale would, as it counts 100% towards a profit entry with no deductions. Some outlets have bizarrely stated the £34 million valuation is so we can avoid an ‘economic total loss’ but we all know what some in the media are like.
£34 million is a valid starting point given the clubs linked and other valuations for players that we saw last summer in particular, but I would imagine we are pretty fluid in how strongly we would stick to that fee given his contract expires at the end of next term, and this is our last chance to get any kind of sizeable fee for him.
He is also of course, not the only player that will need a decision taken on their future, as there are a number of options in the squad that have issues surrounding them and whether or not they could, or should, be options for next season and ahead.
If we do not change manager, Erik ten Hag will have his own thoughts on which players are capable of giving him what he wants, and which ones have now fully demonstrated they cannot – and equally if their is a dug out change, a new gaffer will have their own thoughts on what the make up of their squad should be.
Again, fans could well expect a very busy summer indeed. Then we see how successful it proves to be.
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