Man United Pocketed £17.3M From Januzaj Sale, Drinkwater, Keane Sell-On Clauses
Manchester United's latest financial figures have revealed that the club received a respectable £17.3m in remuneration for players between 1st July and 30th September - the first quarter of the 2017/18 season - despite no major exits.
The figure is listed as 'profit on disposal of intangible assets' and includes the sale of one-time promising youngster Adnan Januzaj to Real Sociedad, as well as income from the sell-on clauses inserted into the deal when Danny Drinkwater and Michael Keane left the club.
Drinkwater and Keane joined Chelsea and Everton respectively this summer in high profile transfers worth a combined reported £60m, with United entitled to a cut of the fees.
Manchester-born Drinkwater had joined United at the age of nine and rose through the United academy. He never played for the first time, though, and was sold to Leicester in 2011 after several Football League loan moves .
Keane was 16 years of age when he entered United's youth ranks. Unlike Drinkwater, the defender did play for the first-team, albeit only sparingly, before heading to Burnley in 2014.
But the sense to include sell-on fees when each player left appears to have paid off.
The reported fee that took Januzaj to Spain was a little under £10m. The Belgian winger, once seen as a superstar of the future when he initially broke into the first-team in 2013, had struggled to fulfil his potential and his departure in July was seen as no real loss to the squad.
A loan move to Borussia Dortmund in 2015/16 was cut short after he failed to make an impression, while a loan at Sunderland last season did little to reignite his career.
Now 22 years of age, the Belgian has started four times in La Liga this season for his new club and has also scored his first league goal since netting the winner for United in a narrow Premier League win over Aston Villa in August 2015.
