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Daniel James: Man United make profit on sale for just fifth time in a decade

by Red Billy
Daniel James

The Daily Express has calculated that Dan James is only fifth player Manchester United have sold for a profit in more than ten years.

James was bought from Swansea City for £16 million in 2019 and was sold to Leeds United for £25 million on Monday.

And despite the plethora of comings and goings at Old Trafford over the last decade, any kind of profit has been a rare occurrence since the massive £67.5 cleared when Cristiano Ronaldo was sold to Real Madrid in 2009.

The Express notes that only four other players have resulted in a positive entry on the balance sheet since then: Alexander Buttner, Chris Smalling, Daley Blind and Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez.

The amounts are mostly modest, too. Buttner was bought from Vitesse Arnheim for £3.9 million and sold to Dinamo Moscow for £5.6m, a profit of just £1.7 million.

Chicharito was bought from Chivas for for £6.5 million and sold to Real Madrid for £9 million, a profit of just £2.5 million.

Blind was bought back by the club that sold him to United, Ajax Amsterdam, with United pocketing £4.3 million profit on the deal.

Smalling provided the most profit , arriving from Fulham in 2010 for £7 million before being sold a decade later to AS Roma for £18.1 million, generating an £11.1m profit.

This puts him slightly ahead of James, with £9 million profit.

The Red Devils have over the same period made some notable losses.

Romelu Lukaku was sold for around £8 million less than his purchase price.

Angel Di Maria was one of the Reds’ biggest losses, having been sold for around £21.5 million less than United paid for him.

The club also lost around £12 million on Morgan Schneiderlin, buying him from Southampton for around £30 million in 2015 and selling him to Everton for around £19.5m just two years later.

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