Following a poor run of form towards the end of 2018–19, Paul Ince singled out the five Manchester United players that he wanted to be sold that summer.
The Red Devils ultimately slumped to a 6th placed finish in 2018-19 and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the manager tasked with getting the club back on it’s feet.
During an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, these were the five players that Ince told United to sell in 2019 and where all of them are today.
Fred
After a lacklustre debut season in England, Ince had already seen enough of Fred as he told the club to cash in on the Brazilian midfielder.
Not only did Fred end up staying at the club for the next four seasons, but he quickly became one of the first names on the teamsheet under Solskjaer.
“If you don’t know what you’re going to get from your team, it’s horrible, absolutely horrible,” Solskjaer told The Overlap.
“That’s why when you have a Fred… you have players who you know they’re going to give you seven, eight out of ten every time. They’re going to give you everything. That’s the best feeling [as a manager].
“I really liked him in midfield – his legs. They needed them legs in midfield.”
Fred ended up leaving United in 2023 with over 200 appearances at the club under his belt. These days you’ll find him playing at Fenerbahce under former United boss Jose Mourinho.
Nemanja Matic
The Serbian international was an elite holding midfielder during his prime, but his peak years were perhaps behind him towards the end of his United spell.
However, despite Ince telling the club to sell him in 2019, Matic did end up sticking around for another few years until he eventually left in 2022.
He’s since had stints with Roma and Rennes, but now aged 36 plays for Lyon.
Romelu Lukaku
Ince seemed adamant that the club should’ve sold Lukaku in 2019, only to then change his mind a few months later when the Belgian international started to regain his form with Inter Milan.
“Has it benefited Man United? I don’t think so, because they still need a man,” Ince told BT Sport in 2020 when asked about United’s decision to sell Lukaku.
“If you go back to the game against Sevilla where they couldn’t score, they need someone to put the ball in the back of the net.
“When you see Lukaku do that, you start thinking why did we let him go?”
In hindsight, leaving Old Trafford when he did was probably the correct decision for both him and the club.
Lukaku’s return to Chelsea was pretty disastrous, but his spells at Inter, Roma and now Napoli have all been fairly prolific.
Anthony Martial
United made the correct decision not to sell Martial in 2019 as the Frenchman went on to have his best goalscoring season in 2019-20.
He scored 23 goals across all competitions in 2019-20 and fired Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side back to the Champions League in the process.
However, following that prolific campaign, he was never able to get back to that level during his final four years at Old Trafford.
From the summer of 2020 until 2024, Martial only scored 19 goals in 95 appearances and he was released upon his contract expiring last season.
These days, you’ll find the 29-year-old playing for Greek outfit AEK Athens. In 19 appearances, the Frenchman has scored nine goals this season.
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Phil Jones
Jones struggled with injuries towards the back end of his career and only made 13 appearances for the club during his final four seasons.
In 2023, the defender started coaching in the United Academy and he officially announced his retirement from playing in 2024.
“I only announced my retirement in August but I knew for a while before then that I would be finishing,” Jones told BBC Sport.
“To come to terms with that, I had to re-evaluate everything and unpick myself personally and professionally, with therapists and psychologists, to find myself.
“My coaching journey has started already because I worked with Manchester United’s academy while I was completing my Uefa A Licence last season, which I really enjoyed doing.
“I am itching to get involved somewhere in some capacity and hopefully, in a few years’ time, I will be in a position where I can put all of this to the test.”