Ratcliffe has just been reminded of one of his Man United bugbears
A new report has cast some light on how Man Utd have fared from selling academy players in the past decade.
Manchester United could have sold Alvaro Carreras, Scott McTominay and James Garner for more than they did
When Manchester United sold James Garner to Everton late in the 2022 summer transfer window, it felt like it sparked a shift in the way academy prospects were viewed at Old Trafford.
Garner was coming off the back of a hugely successful loan spell with Nottingham Forest in the Championship, and with vacancies in United’s midfield, it seemed like that summer was his chance to nail down a squad place.
But Garner suffered from an unfortunately timed injury at the start of the club’s pre-season tour and then found he was unable to win over Erik ten Hag when he did get fit. Rather than becoming the latest academy graduate to become part of the first team, he was sold.
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United decided to cash in on Garner while his stock was high. They accepted a £15million offer from Everton, which, in hindsight, looks well below his value. Now 25, Garner looks a certainty to win Everton’s player of the year award and has emerged as the March bolter that could grab a place in England’s World Cup squad.
In an era when selling academy players can help balance the books, Garner started a trend, along with Andreas Pereira, who was also sold in the summer of 2022. A year later, Dean Henderson, Matej Kovar and Anthony Elanga were sold off.
In 2024, it was Alvaro Carreras, Willy Kambwala, Hannibal Mejbri, Scott McTominay and, in slightly different circumstances, Mason Greenwood. The sale of Alejandro Garnacho to Chelsea for £40million last year came in as United’s record departure for an academy graduate.
Despite these sales, United’s ability to profit from their academy can still improve, according to a new CIES Football Observatory report. United rank seventh in Europe (and fourth in the Premier League) for the value of sales in the last five years. In the last decade, they are down in 19th, with sales totalling £189million.
The figures for the last five years show United’s sales of €220millon pale in comparison with Chelsea (€366m) and Manchester City (€318m), two clubs that have become the gold standard for raising funds through the sale of homegrown players.
It’s certainly an area United can improve on, as Sir Jim Ratcliffe noted in October last year. The 73-year-old isn’t in the habit of varnishing his views these days, and his comments to The Business podcast fell into that category.
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“The academy has really slipped at Manchester United. You need the academy to be producing talent all the time,” he said.
“It helps you financially. That’s not a light switch. You don’t solve the academy problem overnight. It takes time. We just recruited a new academy director.”
Some of those departures from Old Trafford are notable for the poor value they have come to represent. Garner is worth at least double that £15million. McTominay joined Napoli for £30million and is now a hero in Naples. Not only that, United spent £50million on a replacement (Manuel Ugarte) who has proved to be an inferior player.
They sold left-back Carreras to Benfica for £5million, topping up that fee through a sell-on when he then signed for Real Madrid for £43million. The use of sell-ons has become more common for United in recent years and it’s a practice used regularly by Manchester City, who attract huge fees for academy players and then can often profit again if they move on to bigger and better things.
There will be more academy departures at Old Trafford this summer, headlined by Marcus Rashford, although at 28, it feels like he fits into a different category. It is becoming a regular sight every year, however, and Ratcliffe’s view that United need to make more money from this route has just been reinforced.