How much could Manchester United save by selling Kagawa, Cleverley & co?

No club has spent more money so this summer transfer window than Manchester United, who have splashed out £148m on new players.

 

United broke the British transfer record to sign Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid earlier this week, yet it has been reported today that manager Louis van Gaal must now sell some of his highest earners in order to recoup some of the money spent.

 

United’s net spend for the summer currently stands at £139m, having raised less than £10m through the sales of Patrice Evra, Bebe and Alexander Buttner.

 

 

According to a Guardian scoop published earlier today, United are looking to offload a host of big-name players in a bid to raise cash and trim the raise bill. The paper names Marouane Fellaini, Tom Cleverley, Ashley Young, Danny Welbeck, Javier Hernandez, Anderson and Shinji Kagawa.

 

Cleverley and Hernandez are rumoured to be interesting Valencia, while German paper Bild has reported that Kagawa is nearing a return to Borussia Dortmund. With less than four days remaining in the transfer window, United will need to act fast in order to flog all seven players.

 

In the 2012-2013 season (last season’s data has not yet been made publically available), Manchester United had the second highest wage bill in the league after Manchester City, so the need to cut down has been present even before this summer’s big name signings.

 

 

Of the players named by the Guardian, getting rid of Marouane Fellaini would represent the best piece of business for United. Fellaini has an annual salary of £3.78m, yet has four years remaining on his contract, so cashing in now would save the club £15.12m.

 

 

Ashley Young is the highest earner of the bunch – his contract is worth £6.21m a year – yet his contract expires in 2016. Young and Fellaini are arguably the least likely to go, however. United would likely demand a high fee for Fellaini considering they paid £27m for him only a year ago, while few clubs would be willing to match his wages based on the Belgian’s form. Young would also require a hefty bid as he is one of the few current United players capable of playing as a wing-back in van Gaal’s favoured 3-4-1-2 formation.

 

If United were to sell the sorry seven between now and the 11pm Monday 1 September deadline, they could themselves £59.2m in future wage payments – effectively covering the cost of the Di Maria transfer fee.

The money would undoubtedly be appreciated by the Glazer family and Ed Woodward (and probably van Gaal too if he could use it to bring some of his preferred targets to Old Trafford), yet none of these players are the real drainers of United’s bank balance.

 

In fact, the club could save more money by selling just one player. Flogging Wayne Rooney would save the club £81m. Of course, that isn’t a path of action the club can possibly take after handing their new captain a £300,000 a week contract in February this year.

 

Discounting Fellaini who was not at the club at the time, the potential leavers of Manchester United named by the Guardian made up just 15.8 per cent of the 2012-2013 wage bill.