Manchester United consider making second bid for Bryan Mbeumo
Manchester United will be disciplined with their investment this summer as they weigh up making a second bid for the Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo.
The club have already signed Matheus Cunha from Wolverhampton Wanderers for £62.5million and are looking to further strengthen Ruben Amorim's squad, despite having a tight budget to keep within the Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules.
United had an initial bid of £55million (£45million plus £10million in add-ons) rejected for Mbeumo, 25, and are considering an improved offer, but sources said they will not look to repeatedly up their bid for a player who has a £60million asking price, having scored 20 goals in 38 Premier League games this season.
The discussions over Mbeumo come as their latest financial figures, for the third quarter, were released on Friday afternoon. Part of those figures showed how a lack of Champions League football had saved United nearly £20million on their wage bill, which sources said gave them headroom to be able to spend this summer.
The accounts showed a decrease of 21.9 per cent in employee operating costs from the previous quarter. That is partly down to restructuring, which has resulted in 200 staff being made redundant, but is mainly due to the fact that the club were in the Europa League and not the Champions League, which has saved them millions in player wages. Loaning out Marcus Rashford, and Aston Villa covering the majority of his £300,000-a-week salary, also helped.
With no European football at all next season, those savings should further increase in the next set of financial results. Being in the Champions League would have earned them more revenue than the Europa League, but each player would have had a 25 per cent increase in salary, due to a clause in their contracts, which would have eaten into a lot of that extra income.
That £20million saving in wages contributed to a small operating profit of £700,000, compared with a loss of £66.2million 12 months ago. This is, club sources say, evidence that 'difficult decisions' that were made around redundancies are now having a positive impact.
The board are backing their Portuguese head coach this summer as he looks to make improvements in his first full campaign in charge after United's worst season in Premier League history.
What next season will look like nobody knows. Ordinarily finishing in the top four is a minimum requirement and Amorim, whose side finished 15th, has already admitted that it would be unrealistic to expect United to be competing for the title.
But the club's chief executive, Omar Berrada, has refused to set a target for the men's team next season, despite admitting there was a need for 'improvement'.
'We were proud to reach the final of the Europa League, but ultimately, we were disappointed to finish as runner-up in [the final in] Bilbao,' Berrada said. 'We had a difficult season in the Premier League, which we all know fell below our standards, and we have a clear expectation of improvement next season.'
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