Manchester United won't overpay for transfers, says club CEO

Manchester United will not overpay on the transfer market because a bad deal can "set you back", club CEO Omar Berrada said.

"We were able to do it [the summer window] in a financially sustainable way," Berrada said. "We were quite disciplined about the valuations we were giving to the players who were going to come in. We stuck to those valuations. I think [sporting director] Dan [Ashworth] and the team did a fantastic job in the negotiations process."

Both Berrada and Ashworth joined United this year. The former worked for Manchester City in different roles including group commercial director, director of partnership sales, and chief football operations officer since September 2020.

"The reason I mention that is if you make a mistake and if you overspend or get a player who can cost you too much, it can set you back," the CEO added. "Which is why you need to be able to take those decisions and make the right ones consistently over time to be in a position to win consistently."

United have been criticized for overinvesting in transfers, in both the terms of transaction fees and players' salaries. For example, the club spent 243.28 million euros (about $268.9 million) and 202.3 million euros (about $223.6 million) signing players in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 campaigns respectively, but came in third in 2022-23 and eighth in 2023-24.

"You have to be quite brave and make decisions that maybe you don't want to make," Ashworth said. "But you can't have a bloated squad, and you're also dealing with players that ultimately want to play football. So you want to make sure that the squad is lean, but you have enough depth."

It cost United 214.5 million euros (about $237.1 million) during the summer transfer window to acquire five players. They got rid of Jadon Sancho by sending him to Chelsea on loan, but are still looking at struggling Casemiro and his expensive contract. The two cost the club over 150 million euros (about $165.8 million) for their transfers.

United are currently in the 14th place in the Premier League after losing two of their first three games this season.