DEAL AGREED: Manchester United is now set to confirm the signing of £59m word class player, personal terms agreed as player wants to be part of Ten Hag project next season
DEAL AGREED: Manchester United is now set to confirm the signing of £59m word class player, personal terms agreed as player wants to be part of Ten Hag project next season
The transfer market has always been a game of dominos where one party cannot have complete control over every event.
Sometimes, those dominos fall one way which makes it more difficult to do business, while sometimes the opposite happens.
Everton selling Amadou Onana to Aston Villa, making a deal for Jarrad Branthwaite even more difficult was one such negative example.
A positive example might be on the horizon for United, this time in their chase of Manuel Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain.
Manuel Ugarte boost
It is an open secret that Ugarte is the next man up on United’s shortlist after securing Joshua Zirkzee and Leny Yoro, it is the move that makes the most sense too.
However, their financial situation means they cannot go around throwing their cash at clubs anymore after making a huge statement on intent in the Yoro deal.
PSG reportedly value Ugarte at around £59 million, a figure far beyond the reach of the club as it stands. It has led to United exploring creative options for a deal, including a loan with an option to buy.
However, a transfer domino falling could lead to things unexpectedly falling into place for United.
That domino is PSG’s developing interest in Jadon Sancho, who recently made a good return to the team after publicly falling out with Erik ten Hag last season.
The French side have reportedly made a contract proposal to Sancho and he is open to a move in the direction opposite to Ugarte.
If both United and PSG are interested in doing a deal for both players, then it would make sense to work together and grease the wheels by being understanding of each other’s position.
That could mean United taking a slight discount on Sancho and PSG speeding up the negotiations for Ugarte by softening their own stance.
The need to be creative
There is a reason why swap deals in football are so rare. The number of moving parts in such a deal are just too many to control and negotiate.
That is why, even when multiple deals happen between two clubs, they are almost always separate, as seen with Aston Villa buying Ian Maatsen from Chelsea and later buying Omari Kellyman from Villa.
Moreover, making separate deals also help with FFP issues as incoming can be injected into the balance sheet straightaway and outgoings are amortised over the length of a player’s contract.
For example, if United were to get their desired price for Sancho, close to £40 million, it would help them pay PSG about £50 million for Ugarte. Since they’ll get the Uruguayan on at least a five-year deal, his book value this year will be 50/5= £10 million only, easily offset by Sancho’s fee.
The same goes for PSG too, which means the need to be creative is paramount. It looks like a mutually beneficial deal, especially since PSG could also buy Joao Neves from the Ugarte money. The presence of Xavi Simons, and United being potentially interested in him as well adds an interesting wrinkle to it all.
Ultimately, PSG and United are closely linked in the market and it would be in the best interest of both clubs to work with each other in good faith.
