Ruben Amorim’s honesty has cost Man Utd millions

 Earlier this week, one of the seemingly billions of Manchester United social media fan accounts posted a list of players and their reported asking prices: Anthony Elanga, Joao Pedro, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens. “If that’s what these cost, how much is Garnacho worth?” was the accompanying question.

It’s a rhetorical question you read and hear a lot. To which the answer is always the same and almost always lost in the noise: the agreed point between whatever any buying club is prepared to pay and what any selling club is prepared to accept. This is the only transfer window golden rule.

Alejandro Garnacho is one quarter of the Manchester United Four. The group contains two once-heralded academy graduates (Garnacho and Marcus Rashford) and two wingers (Antony and Jadon Sancho) signed for fees totalling roughly £160m. All four are personae non grata. All four are not just available, but have been placed on the front lawn with sale signs. Terms and conditions apply.

These four also share something else: accused attitude problems during their time at Old Trafford. Three of the four were left out of matchday squads by Ruben Amorim. They have been cast as wastrels, allowing their talent and potential to seep away. Caveat: during loan spells at Aston Villa, Real Betis and Chelsea last season, nobody once mentioned attitude issues.

If that reflects badly upon the individuals, what does it say about Manchester United too? Has any other top-flight club ever had four high-profile first-team players, all senior internationals, so publicly frozen out at once and thus made so explicitly available for sale or loan? None of this is normal.

The Manchester United Four are the work of Amorim and his intended cleansing of the culture within a once broken (still broken?) club. His strategy is one of decisiveness and honesty, presumably because he figures that is the only way to wade through murky water. We cannot move forward until this type of player, or perhaps even this type of person, leaves. Despite his own underperformance (and he’s been farcically honest about this too), Amorim has been afforded the luxury of power.

Among most supporters, Amorim’s approach has been popular. You can see the point: United have been so terrible vs historical expectations for so long that reconstructing a coherent, healthy culture is viewed as a necessary component of change for the better. If that means shedding those whose baggage may make it more difficult, so be it. If it’s expensive, they have seen so many millions leave to the benefit of the Glazer family that they do not care.

Towards the players, that mood continues. The onus, fans feel, is on them. There is a World Cup next summer and all presumably harbour some hopes of reclaiming or keeping their place (although that’s probably not true of Sancho). It’s your own time you’re wasting, guys. That feeling has only been propelled by reports that all four will be omitted from the club’s preseason tour in the US.

But Manchester United have a problem too. They need a rebuild; that is no secret. Amorim would quite like his signings to be in place for the start of the preseason tour, but as yet only Matheus Cunha’s arrival has been confirmed. There are conflicting reports on the PSR wiggle room, but at best we can be sure that the nature of the outgoing deals (prices, sale vs loan) will impact their transfer budgets this summer.