Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has been handed a £50million boost for the club ahead of the summer transfer window opening with players leaving the club.
Paul Pogba is on the lookout for a new club after United confirmed his exit at the end of his contract on Wednesday before the club also said their goodbyes to Jesse Lingard. Spanish playmaker Juan Mata’s exit at the end of his contract was then confirmed on Thursday.
That trio have been added to veteran goalkeeper Lee Grant – who has taken up a coaching role at Ipswich Town – while holding midfielder Nemanja Matic has already confirmed his departure from Old Trafford. The exits have not stopped there as striker Edinson Cavani is also ending his two-year spell at United with the expiration of his contract.
With Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Phil Jones, Eric Bailly, Axel Tuanzebe and Anthony Martial among those who United will listen to offers for this summer, the summer clearout at the club is already well underway. While United may not be receiving any transfer fees for the six players leaving at the end of their deals – it will create significant space on the club’s wage bill.
As per figures from Spotrac, the sextet of players who have left United will net them a saving of £48.44million in basic wages. This is not including the costs of performance incentives and other add-ons. Unsurprisingly, Pogba is the biggest saving in wages – the Frenchman was earning £15.08million per year in wages from United.
The next highest earning of the departures was Uruguayan striker Cavani who was pocketing an eye-catching annual salary of £13million while Mata was next up with a yearly wage of £8.3million. Matic was on a contract of £6.2million per year, while Lingard earned £3.9million annually with back-up goalkeeper Grant on £1.56million.
Have Your Say! Which players should Man Utd sell this summer? Tell us what you think here.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest earned at United with an annual wage of £26.5million with David De Gea (£19.5million) and Jadon Sancho (£18.2million) completing the top three. Raphael Varane is on a reported £17.68million, before Pogba and then Cavani were next up in the earnings.
Of the other players who have been made available to other clubs this summer, Wan-Bissaka earns £4.6million per year while Jones is on £3.9million annually. However, the £13million annual wage of striker Martial – who did not score a goal in La Liga for Sevilla during a loan spell – will be the one that the club are particularly keen to offload.
