Manchester United have added clauses into deals for players sent out on loan, but not all may be taken up.
No sale clauses are binding in football. Last summer Eintracht Frankfurt ignored a £9.5 million option they had on Donny van de Beek, and sent him back to Manchester United, who sold him for an initial six-figure sum.
And this season not even an obligation for Chelsea to buy Jadon Sancho is watertight, they could simply buy themselves out of the deal.
Another player out on loan with an option is Tyrell Malacia. He has now been criticised by Dutch ESPN pundit Marciano Vink after his latest display, in another defeat.
Photo by Photo Prestige/Soccrates/Getty Images
Photo by Photo Prestige/Soccrates/Getty Images
Tyrell Malacia numbers vs Ajax
PSV have a clause where they can buy Tyrell Malacia for around £7 million. But amid the team’s poor form, it may not be taken up.
Malacia was a second half substitute against Ajax, coming on at half-time, with his side 1-0 down. They ended up losing 2-0.
While he completed 90 per cent of his passes and created one chance, Malacia failed to win a single tackle from two attempts, and made just one clearance.
He won only two of five duels, and his performance in a disappointing home defeat to a rival was not the statement display he needed.
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Tyrell Malacia deal criticised
Former PSV player Marciano Vink told ESPN, via Voetbal Primeur, that PSV made a bad choice by electing to bring Malacia to the club in the winter transfer window.
He argues that the move for Malacia was never going to work, due to his lack of football at United over the past 18 months due to injury problems.
Arguing that PSV needed an impact player now, Vink said: “Sitting on the bench for a year and a half – due to an injury, but he wasn’t a regular player before that either – is simply going backwards.
“You have to play matches. You don’t catch up on a year and a half in six weeks. That takes months.”
Criticising the PSV management, he added: “I think it’s a bad decision by the management to rent players who have been injured for so long. And to expect them to be there right away. Or you need to have a bigger plan.”
Vink added that he believes Malacia is a ‘good player’ who showed a higher level at Feyenoord, but clearly he believes this particular deal was the wrong move for PSV at this time, who are now nine points behind Ajax in the Eredivisie table.
Perhaps Malacia can show PSV something between now and the end of the season, but United’s proposed buy clause for Malacia is not screaming out as a must-activate for the Dutch side right now.