A Premier League-winning manager has highlighted the “very difficult” position that his club were in when they were actively pursuing one Manchester United player.
Several Manchester United first-team players left the Premier League club, either on loan or in permanent moves, over the course of the recent summer transfer window.
Ruben Amorim had marked multiple United players as surplus to requirements at Old Trafford and the Red Devils were eager to offload talent before 1st September.
United could still sanction further player sales – if needed – to clubs whose countries still have their summer transfer windows open in the month of September.
United manager Ruben Amorim has been able to axe players like Jadon Sancho, Antony, Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford from his first-team squad.
READ MORE: ‘Diligent’ Man Utd talent who is Ruben Amorim undroppable has ‘nucleus of all the right traits,’ claims Rio Ferdinand
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim arrives ahead of the Premier League match between Manchester United and Burnley at Old Trafford in 2025 in Manchester, England.
Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Premier League winner Claudio Ranieri now explains why Roma were unable to sign Jadon Sancho from Man Utd
Jadon Sancho completed a move to Aston Villa in the summer transfer window after the Manchester United player’s permanent move to Chelsea collapsed in June.
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The 25-year-old United winger, who had been on loan at Chelsea for the entirety of the 2024-25 Premier League campaign, had attracted interest from clubs in Italy.
Juventus were heavily linked with Sancho in the summer window, but the United loanee’s hefty wages proved to be a major stumbling block in a transfer swoop.
Roma rivalled Juventus’ interest in Sancho and the Serie A club even tabled a £20m bid for the former Borussia Dortmund star in August amid the summer window.
Claudio Ranieri, who is currently a senior advisor to Roma, has now broken down why the Italian side were not able to fully commit to signing Sancho from United.
“Financially, it was very, very difficult,” Leicester City’s famous Premier League title-winning former manager said, as per Goal.
“But the [Roma owners] would have done it to please the coach.
“Of course, we would have had to sell someone: until a valuable player came along, we couldn’t have done it.
“But I don’t think that valuable player would ever have been sold, because we want to keep valuable players.
“More generally, we have brought in young players, hoping that with the new coach they will be fully developed.
“Because if necessary, we would eventually have to sell and comply with the parameters of this Financial Fair Play.”
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What happened between Roma and Man Utd and Aston Villa player Jadon Sancho amid the summer transfer move?
According to BBC Sport, Roma had proposed to United a loan-to-buy offer for Sancho, which included different clauses that could make the move permanent.
However, Sancho is out of contract with United in 2026 and the Red Devils do not have the option to extend his deal before the Aston Villa man becomes a free agent.
United were keen to sell Sancho in the summer window and offload the former England international’s mammoth wages off the Premier League club’s books.
According to Fabrizio Romano on GiveMeSport, the “financial and technical factors” behind Roma’s deal “were crucial” for Sancho amid the Serie A club’s pursuit of him.