The £115m from player sales Man Utd could make to boost summer transfer war chest

Manchester United’s season is finally over following the 2-1 FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City, and that means that it’s time to get the rebuild back underway. This will be a busy transfer window for United, complicated by the protracted takeover process – but whether the club need some cash to make the signings they want or simply decide to prune some players to get the squad size under control, quite a few established names will be on their way out of Old Trafford this summer.

David De Gea may well leave on a free transfer - and poor Phil Jones aready has - but there are several players under contract and on the books that Erik Ten Hag will be happy to see the back of, and a successful fire sale could net United up to £115m, a pretty decent war chest to work with as they look to source a new striker and shore up several areas of the starting eleven.

Players like Harry Kane and Adrien Rabiot could cost a pretty penny, and even if they get some fresh investment the books still need to be balanced - so let’s look at the players who are likely to leave Manchester this summer, and how much cash they could add to the coffers.

Scott McTominay: £50m

If the price tag allegedly placed on the Scottish midfielder’s head sounds a bit over-the-top, it’s probably based in part on the knowledge that Newcastle United are the club who are most keen on his signature. There’s a bit of a tax being added both because they are a rival for the top four and because United know fine well just how deep the pockets of Newcastle’s Saudi owners are.

The final transfer fee may end up being a bit lower – or at least be heavily structured – because there don’t seem to be many other suitors for McTominay’s signature, at least not at that kind of price. If United can indeed move the high-energy but arguably low-impact midfielder on and get anything like the reported £50m for him, they’ll have done some seriously good business.

Dean Henderson: £25m

Another unwanted player who could fetch some serious cash is reserve goalkeeper Henderson, who is reportedly on the verge of a return to Nottingham Forest having failed to stake his claim to a starting spot at United.

It’s another transfer fee that seems a little on the high side, but some reports have even had the price spiralling up to £30m despite an apparent lack of other interested parties. Henderson spent the 2022/23 season on loan at the City Ground, and Forest are clearly keen on a permanent deal despite displacing the Englishman with Keylor Navas in January. Henderson is likely to create very few stumbling blocks of his own, so this should provide some very decent money for Ten Hag to play with.

Donny van de Beek: £17m

Rumours are swirling that the Dutchman could finally be saved from his United purgatory by Inter Milan, who are putting together a package reported to be in the region of €20m. United have been desperate to offload the former Ajax man for some time, and everyone involved could finally get what they want this summer. The deal would be for less than half of what United paid for Van de Beek three years ago, but after a long struggle to get first-team minutes turned into a long struggle against injury, United are likely happy to get whatever they can.

Anthony Martial: £15m

There have been no shortage of reports that the fleet-footed French forward will be shown the exit door this off-season – but there has been a shortage of teams interested. No solid rumours have emerged about a possible destination for Martial, but there are plenty of reports that United want him gone and have supposedly slapped a £15m price tag on his head. The problem may be contractual terms – he has two years remaining on a lucrative deal worth £13m per year, and Martial knows fine well he won’t get that elsewhere, so he may not be in the mood to make it easy to move him on…

Alex Telles: £13m

Having spent an up-and-down season on loan at Sevilla this season, reports are beginning to circulate that the Brazilian left-back could make a permanent move to Andalucia for around £13m – a little less than the 30-year-old cost when he signed in 2020, but it won’t be a source of too much red in the ledgers. Like Henderson and Martial, he has two years to run on his current deal, in case a buyer can’t be found after all.

Eric Bailly: £5m

Bailly spent the last year on loan to Marseille, not a move that went very well. Iffy form, a couple of injuries and an extraordinary seven-match ban for a vicious high challenge that hospitalised an opponent in the Coupe de France all combined to make it highly unlikely that the French side come back with a bid this summer – and while all signs suggest that United are desperate to offload the Ivorian, there don’t seem to be many takers. We’re taking the price not from any substantive rumours – because there aren’t any – but from Transfermarkt’s best guess at his current value. Of all the players listed here, the most likely to still be stuck on the books come September.

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Harry Maguire: -£10m

The slight wrinkle in all this is the unfortunate case of Harry Maguire – a constant at the heart of the England defence, and a constant headache for Manchester United. The former Leicester City man has been linked with a wide range of clubs, from West Ham and Fulham to Inter Milan, but with a high wage packet still in play after his £80m move in 2019, rumours now suggest that United will actually have to pay the formidably-foreheaded defender £10m just to leave the club on a free. A rather humiliating outcome for both player and club, but probably best for both too.

Total income from above transfers: £115m