As the club's inability to sell at the right price strikes again, GOAL runs through the players allowed to leave for unforgivably low prices
Manchester United fans have very few things to be cheerful about at the moment. The team have just come off their worst season in 51 years and are now toiling in the transfer market as they struggle to provide Ruben Amorim with the squad he needs to make amends in the coming campaign.
Their long pursuit of Bryan Mbeumo is the latest example of the Red Devils always having to spend more than rival clubs to get their targets. But while paying far too much for players is bad enough, United are also earning an unwanted reputation for undervaluing their own players and selling them for way below their true market price.
Newcastle have just agreed to pay Nottingham Forest £55 million ($74m) to sign former United winger Anthony Elanga, who left Old Trafford for only £15m two years before. Real Madrid, meanwhile, are keen on signing Alvaro Carreras, who spent four years on United's books but never played any senior competitive minutes before eventually thriving at Benfica.
The Elanga and Carreras moves come at the same time that United are struggling to find new homes for Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Tyrell Malacia, Jadon Sancho and Antony, who have all made it clear that they wish to leave. The latter three cost the club a combined £174m, while the former two were homegrown players who were supposed to be mainstays of the club's future, and a lack of movement thus far suggests United are likely to again be taken for a ride once they eventually negotiate their sales.
With United's inability to sell at the right price becoming a more common theme, GOAL runs through the six players who the Red Devils undervalued over the course of the last 25 years, only to then watch in horror as they went on to great things elsewhere…
Getty Images SportAnthony Elanga
Elanga emerged into the United first team at a time of crisis, doing so shortly after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had been sacked and Mason Greenwood had been suspended in late 2021. Elanga scored three goals in little more than a month and became the subject of a catchy chant to the theme of 90s smash hit 'Rhythm is a Dancer', which dubbed him 'United's saviour'. The Swede, however, was not the finished article and too much pressure was put on his young shoulders, which contributed to him failing to score again for the remainder of a hugely disappointing season.
United's transfer activity the following summer, however, was hugely insulting to their homegrown talent as they spent £85m on Antony from Ajax. Elanga thus barely got a look-in under Erik ten Hag, and was subsequently sold to Nottingham Forest for £15m in 2023. It felt like a reasonable deal for a player of his limited experience. but his progress at Forest, where he scored 11 Premier League goals and set up a further 20 over the course of two seasons, came in stark contrast to Antony's woeful form and Rashford's massive decline back at Old Trafford.
Now, while United scramble to find any serious bidders for their two unwanted wingers, Forest can celebrate more than tripling their investment on Elanga as he heads to Newcastle.
AdvertisementGetty ImagesScott McTominay
"How you can sell Scott is beyond me," was how Solskjaer reacted when discussing United's decision to sell McTominay to Napoli in the summer of 2024. Ten Hag later explained he did not want to part with the Scotland international, who had dug him out of plenty of holes in the past two seasons, but had little choice due to Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR) and the fact they could mark the whole transfer fee as 'pure profit'.
The fact that Ten Hag did sanction McTominay's sale showed that when push came to shove, the Dutchman ultimately saw the homegrown midfielder as a squad player, a super-sub rather than a regular starter. In the end, United sold McTominay for £25m, which was £5m less than West Ham had offered them for the same player in the previous summer, while the financial boost his sale provided was soon wiped out by the arrival of Joshua Zirkzee for £36.6m.
While Zirkzee was ridiculed by United fans in his first few months with the club, McTominay was an instant hit at the Stadio Diego Maradona and fired Napoli to the Serie A title, while also being named the league's MVP. McTominay has proven to be an utter steal for Antonio Conte's side and another sign that United cannot spot value, even when it has been at the club for a decade.
Getty Images SportAlvaro Carreras
United essentially played most of the 2023-24 campaign without any natural left-backs, but in hindsight it seems that they had a future Real Madrid player on their hands and never used him. Carreras was developing well after an impressive season on loan at Preston North End, but despite Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia suffering early injury setbacks, they preferred to sign Sergio Reguilon from Tottenham rather than play Carreras, who was instead sent out for another loan at Granada.
To tell the truth, Carreras did not exactly thrive at Granada, and when Benfica asked to take him on loan for the second half of the season with an option to buy him permanently, United jumped at the offer. And while United slumped to two consecutive horror seasons without a reliable left-back, Carreras excelled in Portugal, and Benfica now stand to make an astonishing profit on him while United are left cursing the fact that they not only failed to spot his potential in the first place, but that they did not exercise the buy-back option they had inserted into his contract.
Getty Images SportGerard Pique
Gerard Pique has described his time at United, whom he joined from Barcelona as a 17-year-old, as being 'a Master's degree in development as a player and a person', but the Red Devils had no idea that they had a genius among their ranks and instead let him leave for almost nothing.
Pique got limited opportunities at United due to the impenetrable partnership of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, but Sir Alex Ferguson made a big mistake in not seeing the centre-back's future potential and letting him return to Barca for a mere £5m. Indeed, Ferguson seemed to think United would be in safer hands with Jonny Evans.
The legendary manager showed his human touch by granting Pique's request to return home, but just a year later was made to see the error of his ways when the defender cleared a Ji-sung Park shot off the line in the 2009 Champions League final while Barca outclassed United before doing the same in the 2011 showpiece.
Pique became one of Barca and Spain's greatest defenders of all time, and his sale for such a low fee must go down as one of Ferguson's greatest mistakes. It showed that not even the best manager of his time was immune from failing to spot potential.