Man Utd are set to sell Radek Vitek to Championship club Middlesbrough, and some fans have criticised the deal.
Radek Vitek is set to leave United.(Image: 2026 Manchester United FC)
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"It's popular to bash Manchester United, right?" a club employee once said.
United have often made a rod for their own back, particularly over the last 13 years, but there are some instances when criticism is unwarranted, and the absence of level heads on social media is highlighted. The reaction to the agreed sale of Radek Vitek to Middlesbrough is an example.
United sources have not clarified the transfer fee ahead of Vitek's departure, but the suggestion is that Middlesbrough will pay an up-front fee of £7million, with a potential £7m in add-ons included in the deal.
A small, outspoken section of the fanbase has criticised the price, stating that United should be getting much more for Vitek, potentially a fixed fee in the region of £20m. Those supporters are entitled to their opinions, but this is real life and not a FIFA video game.
Vitek was excellent for Bristol City last season and has shown clear potential to become a top goalkeeper, but context is important, and top money simply isn't spent on goalkeepers by clubs outside of the Premier League.
Coventry City have been buoyed by their promotion to the top-flight, which provided scope to sign Carl Rushworth from Brighton for £22m, but that deal wouldn't have been possible if they had not clinched promotion.
The spending power gap between Premier League clubs and most other leagues in the world has widened dramatically. As a general rule, if a top-flight club does not want to sign your player, you settle for less.
Vitek is not ready to be a first-choice Premier League goalkeeper. He has the talent to become a top-flight stopper, but it was always unlikely that a Premier League club would sign the 22-year-old and install him as first choice, however good his loan in the second tier was.
Vitek was not prepared to warm a bench next season.
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That means Vitek would either be sold to a Championship club, or to a suitor abroad, but most clubs in Europe could not offer the sort of financial package required.
How much Championship clubs have spent on goalkeepers comes into the equation, as the position has historically not been an area to which second-tier teams have allocated a large portion of their budgets to.
Leicester City's signing of Mads Hermansen (around £6.5m) and Southampton's signing of Daniel Peretz (£6.05m) are the Championship's record signings of goalkeepers, which set a benchmark for negotiations.
Vitek will therefore become the Championship's record signing for a goalkeeper if United receive an upfront fee of £7m. The deal could double if the performance-related add-ons are triggered, and a buy-back clause will be included, along with a 35 per cent sell-on clause.
United cannot be criticised when the market context is taken into account. Some may suggest Vitek should have been sent on another loan, with a view to further increasing his value, but that ignores two points.
The first is that if Vitek left on another loan, he would have one year remaining on his contract next summer, damaging the club's bargaining power and having the opposite effect on his value.
The second is that Vitek is ready for the next chapter of his career. He has already left United on three loans, having represented Accrington Stanley, Austrian club Blau-Weiß Linz and Bristol City, so the time is right for him to leave on a permanent transfer to kick on.
It spoke volumes that Vitek wasted no time discussing his future when he was asked to stop for a chat after the opening pre-season game against Wrexham. "I feel great and ready to go again somewhere to be, hopefully, number one, so we will see," he said.
Vitek made up his mind before the transfer window opened. He spoke about his dream of representing United during his Bristol City loan, but admitted it looked unlikely due to Senne Lammens' impact.
He knew he needed to leave. Why would he settle for being a second-choice goalkeeper when he knows he can be a No.1? Vitek is at the start of his career and must back himself to see how far he can progress.
It seems almost certain that Vitek will be a success, and some fans in the future will criticise United for not keeping him or for receiving less money for his sale, but that sort of revisionism would ignore the context of this summer.
There are often valid reasons to 'bash' United. The sale of Vitek doesn't fall into that category.