Manchester United’s reported summer transfer budget doesn’t match up to expectations | OneFootball

The grand INEOS plans of shaking up the Manchester United squad in the transfer window with a huge overhaul might have been too reckless.

The Daily Mail has reported United’s starting transfer budget for the summer is expected to be only £35 million.

The report states that INEOS will instead look to supplement this budget by selling off high-earning underachievers.

Player swaps will also be on the menu as they try to play Moneyball in their first season at Old Trafford instead of firing bank notes at clubs for their players.

While the INEOS era so far has been marked by frugality, it is still surprising to see a figure that small, especially in the current market.

With £35 million, not even a backup striker can be bought in the current market, let alone one with the potential/ability to help Rasmus Hojlund right now.

As for their plans to add to that budget by selling players, that looks like a dream scenario more than reality considering the players they’ll put up for sale.

The likes of Casemiro and Antony aren’t fetching transformative fees by any extent of imagination and even revelations like Jadon Sancho and Mason Greenwood have asterisks next to their name.

Greenwood’s case has been well-publicised while Sancho’s astronomical wages will prove to be a stumbling block.

As for player swaps, there’s a reason that those kind of moves don’t happen often which is because it’s rare for two clubs to have complementary needs and rarer still for the two players involved to have similar values.

Ultimately, fans would hope this is just a negotiating stance by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Co. to pivot United’s reputation from aimless spenders to frugal operators.

Otherwise, if this budget is the reality, then the much-awaited “new era” might begin with a whimper instead.

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