Manchester United CEO Omar Berrada has said the club will not be held to ransom in their future transfer dealings because a bad deal can “set you back.”
In the past, United have been accused of over-paying for players, both in terms of transfer fees and wages.
The first summer window under the new leadership team — of which Berrada is part — saw United spend close to £200 million ($221m) on five new players.
Berrada said the club were “disciplined” with the fees paid for new players while also highlighting the dangers of getting deals wrong
“We were able to do it [the summer window] in a financially sustainable way,” Berrada said.
“We were quite disciplined about the valuations we were giving to the players who were going to come in. We stuck to those valuations. I think [sporting director] Dan [Ashworth] and the team did a fantastic job in the negotiations process.
“The reason I mention that is if you make a mistake and if you overspend or get a player who can cost you too much, it can set you back. Which is why you need to be able to take those decisions and make the right ones consistently over time to be in a position to win consistently.”
As well as five new players, United also sanctioned the departures of a number of first-team squad members including Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Scott McTominay.
Sources have told ESPN that some within the club had reservations about letting McTominay leave for Napoli. Ashworth, though, said it was part of his job to make tough decisions.
“You have to be quite brave and make decisions that maybe you don’t want to make,” he said.
“But you can’t have a bloated squad, and you’re also dealing with players that ultimately want to play football. So you want to make sure that the squad is lean, but you have enough depth.
“The schedule, especially with the new Europa League format, is pretty punishing. So we want to make sure we’ve got enough depth that we don’t carry a bloated squad and we’re able to keep the players with the motivation and thought that they’ve got a chance of playing. If you run with too big a squad, it can cause problems. So you have to sometimes make some brave decisions on that.”
Jadon Sancho was another senior player allowed to leave after he made the move to Chelsea, initially on loan, on deadline day.
It came almost a year after Sancho’s public fall-out with Erik ten Hag but Ashworth insists the 24-year-old has not been “kicked out” of Old Trafford.
“I think with any player, whether it’s Jadon, whether it’s Scott or whether it’s Aaron, if there’s a preference that they would like to move and go to a new club and it’s right for them and it’s right for us, then you have to explore it,” Ashworth said.
“We felt we had enough depth in that particular position to be able to cover it, we’ve got four really good wide players, Jadon was a fifth, and it just enabled us to make that decision that if it was good for him and good for us it was something we were willing to consider.
“It was a decision that we made. If it’s right for Jadon and it’s right for us to move on.
“He wanted to explore the opportunity at Chelsea, like Scott wanted to explore the opportunity at Napoli, like Aaron Wanted to explore the opportunity at West Ham. We’re not in a position where we’re kicking players out of the club.”