From a recruitment point of view, it felt like a fairly quiet January window for Manchester United.
There has however been a greater focus by Ole Gunnar Solsjaker and his staff on de-bloating the squad of players who clearly aren’t in United’s long-term plans.
This task started in the summer with sales of the likes of Chris Smalling and continued last month with the moving on of players such as Marcos Rojo and Jesse Lingard.
Whilst it’s important to clear surplus players off the wage bill, it can be a risky assignment, particularly if players deemed not good enough and sold then go onto prove their worth elsewhere.
With that in mind, the below takes a look at a few of United’s more high profiles sales from across the past few years and evaluates how their careers have fared since departing from Old Trafford.
Romelu Lukaku
Lukaku arrived at Manchester United from Everton as a 24-year-old with bags of potential back in 2017. On the cusp of his prime years and having scored a plethora of goals for the Toffees, it was anticipated that United had a ready-made goalscoring machine who was set to lead their line for many years to come.
However, it never quite worked out like that.
The Belgium international did still score 42 goals and register a further 13 assists across his two years at Old Trafford, however, it felt like his move away from Manchester in the summer of 2019 suited both parties.
The San Siro has proven to be the perfect environment for the striker to flourish and he’s already surpassed his goal tally at United with Inter, despite playing 19 games fewer.
His total of 54 goals so far breaks down to a per 90 average of 0.77, which is extremely impressive. At United for comparison, it was just 0.49.
With the Serie A outfit, he’s also seen a significant boost to his game in areas such as his shot output and touches made inside the penalty area per 90.
The reason for his all-round improvements could link to the contrasting styles and formations deployed between United and Inter.
When Lukaku was with United, they tended to fluctuate between a 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3, with him being the main target man in attack. However, Inter favour variations of a 3-5-2 with Lukaku supported by the likes of Lautaro Martínez in a two-man partnership.
As United rarely play a two-man attack, it’s probably fair to conclude that selling Lukaku was the right move by Solskjaer, yet there’s also no denying that he’s gone onto establish himself as one of Europe’s most lethal forwards.
Angel Di Maria
It seems crazy to think now that Angle Di Maria was handed the famous number 7 shirt upon his arrival to United following a big-money agreement with Real Madrid during the summer of 2014.
There’s a perception that he flopped badly under then United boss Louis van Gaal, and to be fair, there’s no denying that he failed to live up to the reputation that preceded him. Yet, he still managed to register a fairly respectable four goals and 12 assists during his one season at Old Trafford.
The Argentina international never truly settled into life in Manchester though, resulting in both him and United jumping at the chance to strike up the deal to sell him to Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2015.
With the French champions, he’s since gone on to formulate one of the most dangerous attacking trios in Europe alongside Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, making 244 appearances and registering a remarkable 188 goal contributions.
He’s also scooped no less than 16 French domestic trophies in those six years too.
Sometimes certain players just don’t suit particular clubs, and this looks to have been the case for Di Maria and United, particularly given his inventive profile in comparison to Van Gaal’s fairly structured philosophy.
However, with United’s issues in trying to land a top-class right-sided attacker in recent years, added with the fact Van Gaal’s tenure proved to be a relatively short one, there’s a lingering sense of what could have been with this one.
Daley Blind
After signing in the summer of 2014, Blind enjoyed a relatively successful few years at Manchester United and was a key member of the team during the two campaign’s in which they landed the FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield and Europa League.
However, deeper into Jose Mourinho’s tenure, time on the pitch became sparse and a move back to Ajax, the club he joined from, happened in the summer of 2018.
At Ajax, he’s proven to be one of the league’s best in areas such as defensive duels won, and he continues to be a real asset in possession, posting both high numbers in terms of quantity of passes made and success rate in those passes.
The 30-year-old’s numbers look fairly unremarkable in terms of aerial duels won, however, and this was something that held him back at United. The physicality of the Premier League means that centre-back’s, particularly for a top side like United, need to be commanding in the air.
Additionally, Blind has suffered some health scares since his departure from Old Trafford, collapsing on the pitch in a pre-season fixture in the summer and he was also diagnosed with heart muscle inflammation 12 months ago.
Thankfully he’s still fit and well enough to play football, however, upgrades through the likes of Harry Maguire since he departed means that for those at United, Blind is reflected upon as a player who did not move on before his time.
Alexis Sanchez
Prizing Sanchez from Premier League rivals Arsenal in the January of 2018 felt like a real coup for the club given the form the Chilean had been in at the Emirates in the seasons prior.
However, he failed to hit the same sort of heights at United, a problem that was further exasperated by the fact that the Reds gazumped interested rivals Manchester City by offering him a substantial salary and even traded attacker Henrikh Mkhitaryan to the Gunners in order to land him.
After an uninspired 18 months at Old Trafford which returned just six goals and 15 assists, the attacker made the switch to Inter Milan, initially on loan before the deal was formalised last summer.
Unlike in the case of Di Maria and Lukaku, the change of environment hasn’t helped the former Arsenal forward rediscover his best form. He’s registered a decent but unremarkable 21 goal contributions so far at the San Siro during both stints with the club and still resembles the shadow of the player he once was.
Even earlier this week, Inter manager Antonio Conte criticised Sanchez for his poor goal record and stated "his numbers must be better" following the club’s 2-1 defeat to Juventus in the Coppa Italia.
It would seem his sale was a timely one and he’s a player Solskajer won’t be missing.
