There has been some strange activity in the Premier League transfer market over the weekend.
Three clubs needing to raise funds to comply with Premier League Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) have been engaged in a flurry of business.
Chelsea, Everton and Aston Villa have been involved in plenty of player trading, with some of the fees being quite eyebrow-raising.
BBC Sport report Omari Kellyman is set to be sold from Aston Villa to Chelsea for £19 million.
The 18-year-old has just 11 PL2 appearances to his name and a Transfermarkt value of £1 million.
Manchester United do not get fair value for young stars
All three clubs involved are playing within the rules of the Premier League, even if this feels like a loophole, enabling them to show extra profit on their books before June 30.
What this does do, from a Manchester United perspective, is highlight how bad the Red Devils have been at selling young players for big sums – even if we don’t want to lose many of them.
Omari Forson, for instance, just left on a free transfer. Shola Shoretire could do the same.
Last summer Zidane Iqbal (above) was sold for a six-figure fee, along with Noam Emeran.
FA Youth Cup winners Marc Jurado and Isak Hansen-Aaroen were both sold for similar sums.
Teden Mengi was sold to Luton for around £1 million, while Alvaro Fernandez has this summer been sold to Benfica for £5 million – where he now has a release clause at almost 10 times the price.
In summary, that’s half a team there listed above, sold for less than half the Kellyman fee combined.
Manchester United need to do better at this, and start ‘playing the game’ to cash in on youth talent on the fringes of the team, rather than give them away like a charity.
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Three players worth as much as Omari Kellyman
Manchester United’s youth team is packed with talent, and naturally, the best ones we want to keep.
But just theoretically, for argument’s sake, there are a handful of players United could demand £20 million for, with a straight face, using Kellyman as a barometer.
Ethan Wheatley – Manchester United’s 250th academy graduate, Ethan Wheatley has a chance to be a star, absolutely prolific at youth level last season.
He struck 23 goals and provided five assists at club level – and this surely would be worth a team taking a gamble on.
Harry Amass – A talented young left-back, Harry Amass might end up being priceless to Manchester United.
Amass is an England youth international who has stepped up to United’s under-21s and also made the first team squad already.
James Scanlon – Similar to Kellyman, James Scanlon is an attacking midfielder with an eye for goal, who also started out in the Derby County academy.
He also has been impressing at PL2 level, and notably, he already has senior international experience at the age of just 17, recently making his first start against Scotland for Gibraltar.
While we don’t want United to actually sell any of these three players, the reality of youth football is that not everyone will make it. Once promising goalscorer Charlie McNeill has just been released.
And with the PSR loophole beginning to spin out of control, it will be fascinating to see if United look at one or two youth talents on the fringes, and try and turn them into a money-spinning asset.