Manchester United's pursuit of Jadon Sancho this summer will help Manchester City financially thanks to the terms negotiated with Borussia Dortmund when the youngster left the Etihad, as previously reported.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side are expected to sign the 20-year-old despite threatening to walk away from the deal if the £108million asking price is not lowered.
If Reds can prepare to gloat at the prospect of a former City player hurting their chances of success, then Blues can be satisfied that United are indirectly funding the improvements made to their own squad.
As well as being invited to match any bid made for Sancho as part of the terms of his 2017 exit - something they are not expected to do - City will receive 15 per cent of any profit that Dortmund make on the player; if the £108m asking price is met, it would net his former club £15m via United on top of the £8m they have already received from the original sale.
However, United will look to stage any payments in installments - as has been their preferred method for completing transfers for some years.
An agreement has not yet been reached between the clubs but recent reports have suggested an initial fee in the region of £60m and then further payments, some of which could be performance-related, to meet the overall asking price.
The normal practice for a sell-on clause is that the percentages come in installments with the fee, meaning that City would only get the full amount as and when Dortmund do.
While United may well be indirectly giving their rivals the bulk of the money spent on recent purchase Ferran Torres, they will not immediately receive the full amount.
