The key to the buy-to-sell transfer market challenge that Erik ten Hag faces is located in the Manchester United manager’s loss of confidence in David de Gea. Illustrated, the conundrum would depict the Dutchman as a juggler keeping aloft his ability to sign André Onana (or another goalkeeper) and a centre-forward only by offloading Harry Maguire, Fred, Anthony Elanga and, maybe, even more peripheral squad members.
Why? Because Ten Hag’s budget is about £120m, of which £55m has been spent on Mason Mount, meaning Maguire, Elanga and Fred are the prime candidates to be sold to raise the requisite cash.
De Gea’s fall in status set this in motion and a clue came when the club triggered the one-year contract extensions of Luke Shaw, Fred, Diogo Dalot and Marcus Rashford in December but not the Spaniard’s.
Onana is Ten Hag’s choice as his new No 1 and an improved £43m offer has been lodged with Internazionale but the Italian club’s valuation is closer to £51m so a compromise at about £47m would leave less than £20m from the original kitty: enough to purchase only a leg or two of Atalanta’s Rasmus Højlund or any other targeted No 9.
Ten Hag has made the correct call on De Gea but the keeper’s free-agent status is causing fans bafflement at how a 12-year relationship with United has reached this juncture. De Gea is the final survivor of the last title triumph who could possibly pull on the jersey next season. At the moment he is the same as Phil Jones: a former United footballer whose release removes the final surviving members of Sir Alex Ferguson’s champion side of 2012-13.
But will it unfold that way? Apparently neither De Gea nor United know for sure. The plan is to resume face-to-face discussions and if De Gea pushes to rejoin he will be offered less money – and Ten Hag is open to keeping him. Alternatively there will be a permanent parting and after 545 appearances and 190 clean sheets a farewell befitting his “legend” status.
The smart money is surely on him leaving but this would mean United missing out on a potential future fee of £30m-£40m for De Gea, who at 32 is in his peak years. That is a sizeable portion of Onana’s price and would aid Ten Hag’s push to strengthen. How this has occurred is puzzling after United decided against triggering De Gea’s extension to avoid paying their highest remunerated footballer another year on his bumper salary.
A catalogue of howlers, including in April’s 3-0 Europa League loss at Sevilla and last month’s 2-1 FA Cup final defeat by Manchester City, surely influenced Ten Hag’s assessment. And, with the situation characterised as “fluid”, the manager judged an upgrade was needed while the club worked on a fresh deal offering De Gea a pay cut. It is understood the framework of this existed but no contract was drawn up and offered.
With talks inconclusive, De Gea’s terms ended, and so did any hope of selling him. Discussions had been ongoing from spring and it was accepted by the CEO, Richard Arnold, that this invoked the “risk” of losing De Gea for nothing.
In De Gea, United have a time-served A-lister whose messy departure follows a line that includes Roy Keane (in 2005) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (the following year): all boast stellar United careers but all parties – including the club – would wish for a more dignified exit.
If the goalkeeper may yet still have a second act, another player who may hope for a second phase at United is Mason Greenwood. If this were to occur it would end Ten Hag’s pursuit of a centre-forward, though Greenwood’s situation is far more complex than De Gea’s.
Greenwood was arrested in January 2022 and charged the following October with attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. He denied the charges and these were dropped in February, at which point the club launched an investigation into Greenwood’s conduct.
Any decision will not be influenced by Greenwood’s football ability, it is stressed by United, and if he is judged able to again pull on a club jersey then Ten Hag’s tricky summer of trading will be eased. Yet with United’s pre-season fixtures starting against Leeds in Oslo on Wednesday and the squad flying to the US on 19 July for the summer tour, there remains a lack of clarity regarding Greenwood.
Arnold is leading the club’s investigation to determine the next steps and given that the process has been running for half a year his manager surely hopes it is resolved soon.
As with the possible sale of United which has dragged into an eighth month, Ten Hag has scant agency over what may happen, and this is one more factor in the task facing the manager this close season – another being how the wages of Maguire and others in any fire sale have increased because of Champions League qualification, which may stop them agreeing to leave.
Ten Hag, though, is intent his juggling act will not fail or United’s season could be affected.
