Ten Hag sold Man Utd’s answer to Andrey Santos for just £500k

For all the frustration regarding Manchester United‘s recruitment over the last decade or so, how often has the club truly been stung by moving players on?

It’s difficult to think of too many high-profile examples of players really ripping it up after leaving Old Trafford, with Alejandro Garnacho notably enduring a miserable first season at Chelsea following his £40m summer switch.

Those who toiled in Manchester haven’t always left the club red-faced after moving on, although that’s not to say the Red Devils haven’t made the odd mistake or two in recent years.

Under Erik ten Hag’s watch, in particular, a fair few appeared to slip through the net, with the Dutchman’s lack of faith in a select few having seemingly come back to bite United.

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Be it the signings of Antony, Rasmus Hojlund or Sofyan Amrabat, the approach taken under Ten Hag in terms of incomings wasn’t exactly the most fruitful, not least the obsession with Dutch or Eredivisie-based additions.

Whether the ex-Ajax boss was solely to blame or not, there are also questions to be asked of the players he allowed to move on, particularly those who emerged from the academy ranks.

The most obvious example in that sense remains Scott McTominay, although for all the Ballon d’Or nominees’ success at Napoli, this still feels like a deal that proved the best scenario for all parties, with United raking in a £30m fee for a player who was 28 at the time and had just a year left on his contract.

The Scotland star was a player whom Ten Hag evidently favoured too, although the same can’t be said for the likes of Alvaro Carreras, the young Spaniard repeatedly overlooked by the Dutch coach despite United’s ongoing left-back woes.

Sold on permanently to Benfica in 2024, the impressive full-back sealed a £40m switch to Real Madrid just a year later, a rapid rise for a man who never made a competitive senior outing for the Red Devils.

Back to the midfield unit too, James Garner was sold on to Everton for a fee of just £9m after making only seven first-team appearances for United, with the young Englishman since emerging as a real star for the Toffees.

Last term, for instance, the 25-year-old ranked fifth in the division for assists and tenth for key passes made, looking like the type of player who could have been a homegrown solution in United’s midfield.

He’s not the only one either…

Man Utd already sold their answer to Andrey Santos

With Elliot Anderson and Mateus Fernandes moving on elsewhere, United are working their way through the midfield shortlist this summer, having now lasered in on Chelsea’s Andrey Santos.

That interest has come as something of a surprise, although the young Brazilian appears to have been on the club’s radar for an extended period, having previously impressed on loan at Strasbourg under Liam Rosenior’s watch.

Landing the 22-year-old wouldn’t exactly come cheap for INEOS, however, with Santos likely to fetch in the region of £50m, having signed from Vasco de Gama on an £18m deal back in January 2023.

The nature of that asking price might now have United scratching their head as to why a certain Maxi Oyedele was let go, the Carrington graduate now catching the eye himself at Strasbourg.

Still only 21, the Salford-born midfielder was part of the club’s FA Youth Cup-winning side in 2022, alongside the likes of Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo, having featured off the bench in the showpiece win over Nottingham Forest.

He subsequently went out on loan to Altrincham and Forest Green Rovers, while returning to the first-team fold for pre-season in 2024, notably registering an assist in the 2-0 win over Rangers that summer.

There looked to be a real player there, yet Ten Hag and co were instead willing to cash in, seeing Oyedele join Legia Warsaw for a fee of just £500k.

Much like Garner before him, the two-cap Poland international appeared to have been a favourite of United skipper, Bruno Fernandes, with the Portuguese believed to have been “shocked” to see Oyedele sold.

Fernandes no doubt knows a player when he sees one, with Oyedele swiftly doing enough in Warsaw to seal a move to France last summer.

Injury did disrupt his start to life in Ligue 1, although the man who inherited Santos’ number eight shirt in Strasbourg did impress in the final few months of the season, memorably curling home a stunning trivela finish against FC Nantes in March.

A versatile talent who can play at full-back, where Oyedele particularly stands out is in regard to his ball-playing quality, boasting a 90% pass accuracy rate in Ligue 1 last term, while having squandered possession just 5.5 times per game.

That is only from a small pool of games, although such a record does compare favourably to Santos’ own Ligue 1 average the year prior, the South American boasting an 89% pass accuracy rate, while losing the ball 8.3 times per outing.

Oyedele has been BlueCo’s direct replacement for Santos in France, but might he have been United’s own version of the Chelsea man, if he’d stayed at Old Trafford?

As already stated, rarely have United been particularly stung by high-profile recent sales, but to have afforded Garner, Carreras and Oyedele just seven first-team appearances between them doesn’t exactly reflect well on Ten Hag’s judge of talent.