Good? Responsible? Restricted? Assessing Man Utd's transfer business

Simon Stone - Manchester United reporterWed, September 2, 2026 at 10:21 AM UTC

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To pinch a Michael Carrick news conference answer, there are two ways of looking at Manchester United's transfer business this summer as a whole.

There is an argument to say there is a lot to like about what they have done.

They targeted midfield as a priority area and brought in three internationals, all well known to the Premier League. Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba have plenty of development in them and most Aston Villa fans were sad to see Youri Tielemans leave, which is usually a sign of good business for the buying club.

In addition, United stuck to chief executive Omar Berrada's summer pledge not to be held to ransom by agents, not to overpay and not to get sucked into bidding wars.

They also seem to have adopted a long-term strategy of letting younger players leave for relatively small initial fees, while loading up the sell-on and buy-back clauses. It means moves have been completed that should ensure the players get games, thus increasing their chances of doing well, which would lead to potentially higher transfer fees, where the sell-on aspect would kick on - or, if they did really well, a return as part of a buy-back.

These measures are all worthy of praise.

But for some, it is not enough. They see the lavish spending of Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea, and Arsenal being linked with Vinicius Jr, and wonder why United, one of the biggest clubs in the world, cannot follow suit.

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Old Trafford officials argue they are having to deal with years of poor recruitment and no-one could dispute the validity of this.

However, it is also true they are having to deal with debt – both the size of it, in excess of £1bn, and the amount it costs to service it.

That sum will increase because of a summer refinancing of £317m worth of bonds, which not only led to a further $125m (£92.5m) debt being taken on, but also the interest to pay it rising from 3.79% to 5.36%.

In the next few weeks, United will announce financial results to 30 June 2026. In the third quarter accounts, to 31 March 2026, United confirmed net finance costs of £20.3m for the previous three months, and £55.7m for the previous nine months, although that was put down to an "unfavourable swing in foreign exchange rates".

In September 2025, respected football finance blogger Swiss Ramble estimated United had paid £852m in interest alone since the Glazer family completed their leveraged buyout in 2005.

That money, fans critical of United's transfer business this summer say, would be a game-changer if it was added to the overall pot.

What do you make over the overall transfer business at Old Trafford this summer?

Get in touch with your views here

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Source: “AOL Sports”