Why Manchester United have never spent £100m on a signing eight years after Ed Woodward’s plans to were rebuffed

ON transfer deadline day in 2018, Ed Woodward spent more time getting his excuses in rather than bringing in a centre-back at Manchester United. A disenchanted Jose Mourinho had already had his say at a morning press conference. Mourinho and Woodward worked together for two-and-a-half years Credit: Getty Images Varane ended up at United in 2021 Credit: Getty Around an hour later, Woodward told confidants he was prepared to pay £100million for a defender. Woodward named the player: Raphael Varane. Varane was a recently-crowned a Champions League and World Cup winner. Sign up for the Man United newsletter Thank you! Conveniently, he was not gettable. Mourinho managed Varane for two years at Real Madrid and did not shortlist him. Eight years on, United have still not broken the £100m barrier for a signing. Since Sir Alex Ferguson headed upstairs in 2013, the club have agreed to pay £2.118bn in transfer fees alone. That excludes the eye-watering salaries frittered on Alexis Sanchez and Edinson Cavani. Following Tottenham’s £100m purchase of Sandro Tonali, all of the other old ‘big six’ clubs in the Premier League have hit the nine-figure mark. Jack Grealish to Manchester City was the first in 2021 and in 2023 alone Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Declan Rice made marquee moves. Cue a calmer 2024 before Liverpool took leave of their senses with Florian Wirtz and yielded to Newcastle over Alexander Isak in 2025. Most read in Sport BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK This summer alone, Tonali, Elliot Anderson and Morgan Rogers have become centurions. Chelsea’s owners, BlueCo, are chiefly responsible for this new trend after the extravagant purchases of Fernandez and Caicedo for a combined £222m. They did not think twice about paying £1m more for Rogers than Manchester City did for Anderson. Some figures at City, already delighted that Anderson preferred them over United, were particularly pleased by his “kings of Manchester” comment last week. During United chief executive Omar Berrada’s time at City, the club swore by a policy of not exceeding £60m for a signing. Exceptions were eventually made (Grealish, Rodri, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol) but it was so successful that some at City used it as a stick to beat United with. The gist was that while City may have consistently outspent United, they were more disciplined, rarely overspent on a player and had the trophy cabinet to back it up. Now Berrada is two years in at United, he is attempting to apply a similar principle in a domestic market that is more inflated than ever. It is easy to pinpoint when Berrada arrived at United. In his first summer in 2024, they did not exceed the £60m mark for an overall fee. United have done creditably to sign two midfielders from Premier League clubs for a combined £85m this summer. That does not change the fact that Anderson was the one United really wanted and they turned their attention to Mateus Fernandes before Tottenham blew them out of the water. There was a drastic shift with the move for the 29-year-old Tielemans, outside their preferred age range for targets. The £35m United had planned to spend on Ederson was transferred to Aston Villa instead. Santos started in less than half of Chelsea’s games last season and was farmed out on loan four times in three-and-a-half years. Some at Chelsea were surprised by the steep £50m fee. During Woodward’s eight-and-a-half years as executive vice-chairman, United set club and British record fees (Juan Mata and Angel di Maria in 2014) within his first year, then the world record fee for the £89m Paul Pogba in 2016. United actually agreed a slightly larger fee for Romelu Lukaku a year later, a deal that would have risen to £90m if Lukaku had performed consistently and stuck around long enough. Pogba returned to United in 2016 Credit: Getty Images Lukaku joined United a year after Pogba Credit: Getty One record that stands is the £80m Harry Maguire deal in 2019, still the largest fee paid for a defender. Maguire was available for £75m the previous summer, when Woodward plucked Varane’s name out of thin air. There were noticeable trends under Woodward. United always spent more after they had failed to qualify for the Champions League and they never exceeded £150m for permanent incomings in a summer window. That changed under his successor Richard Arnold in 2022 when the club committed to investing £228.2m on summer signings. Last year was different. After their worst season in 51 years, United had to spend sizeable sums on Matheus Cunha (£62.5m), Bryan Mbeumo (£71m) and Benjamin Sesko (£73.62m). Cunha had a release clause but the negotiations for Mbeumo were an ordeal. United were unimpressed by Brentford’s apparent attempt to railroad him into a move elsewhere, seemingly to extract a higher fee. Sesko’s valuation was driven slightly higher through Newcastle’s firm interest. Sancho was a dud Credit: Getty Antony played under Erik ten Hag at Ajax Credit: Getty All three fees, reasonable at the time, appear more sensible now after the players’ impacts. Sir Jim Ratcliffe was very specific when he named the players that his Ineos cabal had “inherited”: Jadon Sancho, Antony, Casemiro, Andre Onana and Rasmus Hojlund. Had United conducted cursory due diligence on Sancho they may not have acted as though obligated to bring him back to England. Sancho played more games on loan than he did for United during his five years under contract. The Casemiro and Antony deals were panicky and bankrolled after United’s worst performance in a lifetime, the 4-0 trouncing by Brentford August 2022. Ajax valued Antony at €60m at the start of that summer and his fee ballooned to €100m. Onana arrived for nearly £50m a year after he was a free agent. United promised not to spend more than £60m on their striker signing. They paid Atalanta £64m up front for Rasmus Hojlund. Hincapie made his move to Arsenal permanent Credit: Getty Jacquet has joined Liverpool Credit: Getty Onana, Hojlund and Mason Mount joined in the summer of 2023, a record window for the number of incomings at United and also their worst. John Murtough was the United football director for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 summer windows. A competent football administrator, Murtough was not an experienced deal-maker and the personable Arnold was cut from the same cloth as Woodward. Tellingly, the 2023 summer was the last before Ratcliffe assumed control of football operations. Cue none of the “kamikaze” spending that Ferguson once accused City of at the start of their Abu Dhabi rebrand. The Premier League’s and Uefa’s financial fair play rules have put the squeeze on United. Their mid-season transfer activity has reduced significantly and contracts are not doled out as recklessly as Woodward used to. This summer, Aston Villa have spent more on a signing than United (the £51m Johan Manzambi). United are not the only ones surveying the market. Liverpool have spent a modest £90m on Victor Munoz and Jeremy Jacquet while Arsenal bought Piero Hincapie and Christos Tzolis for £89m. Chelsea and Tottenham’s bravado was to be expected after their catastrophic campaigns. United’s squad, while in need of three more recruits, is in decent nick. This is a curious summer for United in that the majority of their targets would be squad players. A specialist defensive midfielder would be the sole certain starter and that player is yet to arrive. Like Woodward in 2018, United do like a Frenchman at Real Madrid. Aurelien Tchouameni is available for under £70m, a figure aligned with United’s stricter spending. Comment now