Man Utd would have required a £55m sale of Casemiro to make the same £25m profit gained from selling Scott McTominay to Napoli.
The Red Devils were busy during the summer transfer market with Leny Yoro, Matthijs de Ligt, Joshua Zirkzee, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte all completing moves to Old Trafford.
But also had to balance their books over the summer with the Premier League s profit and sustainability rules being taken seriously after Everton and Nottingham Forest were given points deductions last season.
Selling a homegrown academy product counts as pure profit under the rules, giving the selling club more benefits in the transfer market.
Many Man Utd supporters would have preferred to see McTominay stay over the summer but The Athletic has explained why sporting director Dan Ashworth decided to cash in on the Scotland international rather than selling under-fire Casemiro.
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Ashworth tapped into an emerging theme, which is clubs seeing academy players as a means of raising greater flexibility within the rules because of their value in the accounts. That Ashworth chose to go there is notable in that it suggests he wants to make clear to United fans why a player such as McTominay was allowed to go over, say, the club pushing an exit for Casemiro, who arrived for an initial £60million two years ago.
McTominay undoubtedly had more interest in any case, but it might have been an interesting debate if United had got an offer for Casemiro that did not help their PSR calculations as much as seeing an academy player leave. The cost of a transfer can be spread out over the course of a contract for terms of accounting, so in Casemiro’s circumstance, £15million per season, leaving his book value at £30m in 2024-25.
So to make the same £25m profit gained from selling McTominay to Napoli, United would have required a £55million sale for Casemiro, which was implausible. Albeit that does not include the major saving on wages for a departure by Casemiro, who earned nearly three times as much as McTominay at United, and is a significant factor in the calculations.
There is a sense of sadness about Ashworth painting out the prospect of one-club players dwindling even further. Still, Berrada wanted to make the point that the rules are right in principle: for sensible decisions to create as level a playing field as possible and sustainable businesses.
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When asked if Casemiro could benefit from the arrival of Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain, former Man Utd striker Andy Cole told Betfred: It might do, but I’m not going to sit here and say that Casemiro was the reason why Manchester United lost to Liverpool on Sunday.
