Since buying Manchester United in May 2005, the Glazer family have taken over £1bn out of the club, and not put a single penny in. Essentially, the support have paid for the privilege of being owned by people who have not so much as spoken to them in 15 years – though one of the interchangeably gimpish brothers was good enough to point and laugh during some in-ground protests in 2010.
It is for this reason that, when United attempt to buy someone, the process does not involve asking the price, negotiating a bit, then paying the price. Ultimately, should a transfer succeed, the player is worth whatever his club was lucky enough to give for him, and what is a football club’s money for, if not the purchase of football players? Well, in United’s case, it’s to make a bunch of Trump-funding nomark parasite weirdo goons even richer than they already are.
United have known for quite some time what it will take to extricate Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund, because Dortmund have told them, and they know what dealing with Dortmund entails, because they have done it before. They also know that Dortmund would prefer to keep Sancho because he’s good and that there is no financial imperative forcing them to sell, yet proceed as though neither of things are so because Ed Woodward is a businessman who relies on profit, not trophies, to satisfy his rapacious bosses and rampant ego.
As such, though United and Dortmund agreed the first instalment of the fee for Sancho – €60m – they could not agree a payment plan for the second lot of €60m, nor the conditions for the bits of it which are contingent on conditions. On top of that, Woodward also attempted to gazunder Dortmund – a ploy common in the business world, involving the buyer agreeing a price, then returning with a lower offer, hoping that that the seller is so committed to the deal, mentally, financially or both, that out of either resignation or necessity, it gets waved through because what else can be done.
Dortmund, though were having no such thing, and the price remains the price just as it did when Leicester told United what Harry Maguire would cost, just as it did when Tottenham told United what Dimitar Berbatov would cost. In both cases, United messed about all summer before paying what they knew the fee to be, meaning they had less time to do other deals and forcing the players to uproot their lives as a matter of urgency rather than at their leisure, while integrating into a new team without the benefit of a pre-season to get used to their new team-mates.
Luckily for United, Sancho remains committed to the move – it was clear, just from the interview he gave when Dortmund visited Spurs in the Champions League, that he wants to return to England – and United are the only option available to him, though, for the first time in a long time, they’re actally an option worth having. As such, he is prepared to hand in a transfer request if that is what it takes to get the move, which is why the move will still probably happen. It will mean Sancho sacrificing his share of the transfer fee – because unlike the Glazers, he appreciates that some things are more important than money, especially when you have a shitload of it already.
Daniel Harris
(@DanielHarris)