The academy sales Manchester United got right and got wrong after £98m double transfer

The academy sales Manchester United got right and got wrong after £98m double transfer

Two United academy graduates have been sold for big money in this summer's transfer window

Fernandez and Mejbri were promoted to the first team squad by Ralf Rangnick

Two former Manchester United youth-teamers have transferred in the past week for a combined £98million.

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Thanks to sell-on clauses, United have raked in £13m from Anthony Elanga's £55m move to Newcastle United and Alvaro Carreras's return to Real Madrid.

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Elanga will be playing in the Champions League next season and Carreras figured in that competition last term with Benfica. The latter never made his debut for United while Elanga failed to score in his final 18 months at the club.

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It has become easy to deride United whenever a former player thrives. Elanga scored the winner against his former club for Nottingham Forest in April. Typically, it was his last goal of the season and Forest lost their nerve with a Champions League place up for grabs and ended up in the Europa Conference League.

In 2023, United decided to strengthen their approach to selling academy graduates at the opportune moment. A year before, the only fees they banked from departures were for academy graduates Andreas Pereira and James Garner.

Every case with a United academy sale is nuanced. Contrary to popular belief, the club have got more right than wrong.

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Andreas Pereira

Pereira is a Premier League regular and plays for Brazil but nobody seriously suggests United miss him. He had plenty of chances under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, perhaps too many, and became an irrelevance in his last two-and-a-half years at the club after Bruno Fernandes arrived in January 2020.

Following loan stints with Lazio and Flamengo, Fulham took the plunge with a £10m offer in 2022, a year before Pereira's United deal expired. They did United a favour.

Verdict: right to sell and for a good price

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Pereira had plenty of chances under Solskjaer

James Garner

United belatedly decided to sell Garner in the 2022 summer transfer window, informing intermediaries before the player himself. Garner was injured for the majority of Erik ten Hag's first pre-season and then failed his audition in the final friendly at home to Rayo Vallecano.

It was still a jolt that United planned to offload one of their most polished players to emerge from the academy in recent years. Given Garner's cachet as a United youth-teamer, England Under 21 representative and role in Nottingham Forest's 2022 promotion, he went on the cheap at £15m.

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Garner has been a quality addition for Everton and operated at such a low level he has not been bracketed among the ones to get away from United.

Verdict: too low a price and wrong to sell but understandable as the manager was not going to use him

Garner was injured during most of Ten Hag's first pre-season

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Anthony Elanga

Newcastle's hit rate in the transfer market has been so good in recent years that the £55m they have coughed up for Elanga has barely been scrutinised when they have overpaid for an overrated winger.

United received £15m rising to £20m from Nottingham Forest for Elanga in July 2023. The only other club that was interested were Everton. Forest and Everton finished in the two places above the relegation zone in 2022-23.

Elanga did not score in his only full season in the United first team and, at the time he left United, they had Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Alejandro Garnacho ahead of him in the pecking order on the left wing. It has gone awry for all three, all available for transfer this summer, but United had to cash in on Elanga, Premier League-quality but not United quality.

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Verdict: right to sell but could have negotiated a better price

Elanga had one of the most inaccurate United chants

Matej Kovar

Ten Hag was briefly reunited with a familiar face at Bayer Leverkusen. Kovar never debuted for United but his impressive skill set was obvious and he seemed poised to become the new No.1 at the 2024 Bundesliga champions. Yet he has just joined PSV Eindhoven on loan.

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Kovar left United in the same summer that Andre Onana arrived. If United had not stockpiled goalies, he would have been a worthy competitor for Onana but Bayer paid £7.7m for a goalie that United had developed for six years.

Verdict: right to sell for a good price

Dean Henderson

Chelsea were prepared to part with £40million for Henderson in 2021. He ended up leaving United for an up-front fee of £15m, rising to £20m, two years later.

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Henderson did not end up as United's No.1

After Solskjaer reneged on his pledge to install Henderson as No.1 for the 2021-22 season, the England international made only three more appearances for the club and spent his final year on loan at Nottingham Forest.

Come the summer of 2023, United released David de Gea and brought in Onana. Henderson, demonstrably a No.1 Premier League goalkeeper, had to go but the fee United banked was derisory, chiefly due to the mismanagement by Solskjaer of a 'keeper they had developed for a decade.

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Verdict: right to sell but poor price

Alvaro Fernandez

Leverkusen fans should keep an eye out at left back as that is where Ten Hag has a blind spot. While Fernandez was at United, the club bought Tyrell Malacia, handed Luke Shaw a four-year contract, loaned in Sergio Reguilon and played three right-footers at left back.

Fernandez is now back at Real Madrid

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Malacia wants to leave, Shaw has played 27 times in two seasons and Reguilon's loan was terminated early. As long as Ten Hag was at United, Fernandez would not get a kick and he was sold to Benfica last summer.

This week, he re-joined Real Madrid for £43m.

Verdict: wrong not to ever play him

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Willy Kambwala

After being dogged by injuries in his first few years at United, Kambwala overachieved to play ten times for the club and receive an FA Cup winner's medal. He would have started in the FA Cup semi-final epic with Coventry City but for another ill-timed injury.

A €4m recruit from Sochaux in 2020, Kambwala was sold to Villarreal for £4.63m rising to £9.68m, an impressive outlay for a raw defender who did not have a realistic pathway to the first team at United.

Verdict: right to sell

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Kambwala played ten times for United

Mason Greenwood

The United chief executive, football director and manager were all gone within a little over a year after the club abandoned plans to reintegrate Greenwood into the first team squad. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped criminal proceedings over attempted rape against Greenwood in February 2023 and the United hierarchy had planned for him to come back into the team until a fan backlash prompted them to back down.

After a year on loan with Getafe in Spain, Greenwood was sold to Marseille for £26.6m last year.

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Verdict: right to sell

Hannibal Mejbri

Mejbri and Kambwala arrived in the United academy from French sides in successive years and left for similar fees. Burnley agreed an overall £9.4m to sign Mejbri.

Mejbri had a brief stint as a starter under Ten Hag but his productivity off the ball was not matched by his effectiveness on it. After five years with United, he moved down the road to Burnley and helped them to promotion back to the top flight.

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Verdict: right to sell

Mejbri spent five years at United

Scott McTominay

United refused to sell McTominay for £30m in 2023. A year later - and after his career-best season - he was sold for around £30m.

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McTominay's goal-getting was crucial in 2023-24 and he was the glue in the team that punched above their weight in the FA Cup final triumph against Manchester City. Yet United needed a younger defensive midfielder and the sellable asset to make way was the attack-minded McTominay.

Fulham were the only interested Premier League club before Napoli came in. McTominay topped his final season with United by winning the Scudetto in Italy, where he was named Serie A's MVP.

McTominay's profound impact in Naples, and the struggles of Manuel Ugarte (hardly a like-for-like replacement) undermine United's decision to cash in on the Scot but their logic was understandable. McTominay might have been sold a year earlier had Kobbie Mainoo not sustained an ankle injury during pre-season.

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Verdict: right to sell but replaced with the wrong man

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