Manchester United handed brutal £100m reality amid transfer chase

Manchester United handed brutal £100m reality amid transfer chase

Man United have a summer off while others are raking in Club World Cup revenue.

The Club World Cup got under way over the weekend

Manchester United are waiting and watching.

They're waiting on a prospective move for Bryan Mbeumo and they're watching some of the biggest clubs in world football compete in the Club World Cup for a £100million prize pot.

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United are no paupers, they've splashed £62.5million on Matheus Cunha already this summer, but they are having to cut their cloth after years of poor recruitment. A ticket to golden raffle of the Club World Cup would have been most handy.

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Instead, rivals Manchester City and Chelsea are involved in the lucrative 32-team competition and both are expected to go deep into the tournament. The duo should comfortably progress from their groups and could conceivably meet in a semi-final.

Both are parading new signings at the tournament and both have spent big this summer already. The financial benefit they will receive from the Club World Cup will swell coffers further, while the impact made on audiences in America could open further doors for commercial investment or growing the fanbase.

United, meanwhile, are one of those looking in. Their task next term is to compete in the top six but, financially at least, City and Chelsea are stealing a march this summer and raking money in while the Reds felt the need to head off to Asia hours after the final whistle of the Premier League season to pocket around £10million.

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That's a drop in the ocean compared to the riches on offer right now in America and next season in the Champions League. United will need to box clever in the transfer market to close that gap.

Their focus will be on recruitment and adding Mbeumo, and potentially others, to try and reshape Ruben Amorim's squad ahead of pre-season and the Portuguese's first full campaign in charge at Old Trafford.

The Reds need to sell players, they need to offload the unwanted Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Antony, and they need to do so for competitive prices. That is not straightforward when it's clear they're desperate to sell and their track record of selling players in recent years is awful.

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United might benefit from a summer off and a reduced fixture calendar next term. But others will benefit to the tune of millions from the riches Club World Cup and Champions League fixtures bring.

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