Man Utd midfielder Kobbie Mainoo faces “a big issue” over potentially leaving Old Trafford in the summer transfer window, according to a financial expert.
The Red Devils academy graduate has been one of the bright sparks for Man Utd over the last couple of seasons after breaking into the first-team squad during Erik ten Hag’s tenure at the club.
Ruben Amorim has used him further forward at times during his spell in charge of the Red Devils and has been impressed by certain aspects of the 19-year-old’s game.
However, Mainoo is demanding £150,000 a week in order to renew his contract, which goes over and above what Sir Jim Ratcliffe is prepared to pay the youngster.
It has been claimed recently that Ratcliffe has ‘declared war’ with his contract policy recently with Mainoo set to be one of the first casualties.
There are rumours that Man Utd will now sell Mainoo in the summer transfer window after it became clear that they could struggle to tie him down to a new contract.
But former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson reckons Mainoo could struggle to find a new club capable of paying £40-50m for the Man Utd starlet.
Borson told Football Insider: “He’s a valuable player from a PSR perspective because it goes straight to the bottom line and it’s close to pure profit from a PSR perspective.
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“But you’ve got to replace that player and it sounds like his wages at the moment are manageable.
“Clearly, if you buy a player, the chances are the wages will be higher and you will have a transfer fee to amortise over the lifetime of that contract, so it can be a false economy.
“Really what you end up doing is taking an immediate profit but then spreading the cost over the next five years, so I don’t think the Mainoo sale will be driven by PSR. I think they’ll have a look at whether the player is considered good enough.
“I think there’s a big issue as to where he’s going to go abroad. I don’t really see that. No league in the world can outpay what the Premier League would pay, so I think if he’s going to go, the likelihood is he stays in the Premier League somewhere.
“We know Chelsea have expressed interest. I would think if he does leave United, which I think he probably won’t, then he’ll stay in the Premier League. Otherwise, you’d really question who in European football has got the money to pay £40-50million for him.
“I can’t see it. You are talking about Bayern Munich and PSG. It’s hard to think of anybody else that would be interested and could actually do the deal.
“It’s not that teams wouldn’t be interested, but in terms of being able to do the deal, it feels like probably just those two teams.”