Manchester United have not been able to live up to their standards as one of the biggest clubs in the world over the past decade.
From failing to perform on the field to lacking any real strategy behind the scenes, it’s safe to say that the club as a whole has suffered tremendously in recent years.
Just by taking a look at the signings in recent years, it’s clear that there isn’t a clear idea of progression, with high-value deals turning out to be failures.
That said, it isn’t often that United actually make the correct decision to sell a player, unlike one individual whose value has significantly dropped since the summer, to the point where they’re worth three times less than Harry Maguire.
Harry Maguire’s transfer value in 2024
In 2019, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was in search of a centre-back to build his Man United team around, and at the top of his list was Maguire.
The 6 foot 4 rock switched Leicester City for United in an £80m world record deal for a defender, and in his first campaign, he led the side to 13 clean sheets in 38 Premier League games.
However, fast forward to today, and the former United captain’s value has plummeted to just £13m according to CIES’ Football Observatory, due to injuries and a lack of consistency on the field.
It marks rather poor business from a United point of view, but it's not all been doom and gloom on the transfer front with one recent departee now actually worth less than Maguire.
Dean Henderson’s transfer value after leaving Man Utd
Academy graduate Dean Henderson spent 12 years at Man United, yet despite impressing on loan at Sheffield United in particular, he was never trusted enough to fill the shoes of first-choice David de Gea.
The 27-year-old made just 29 appearances for the Red Devils over his career in the first-team setup, with more than half of them coming in cup competitions.
But in the summer, he eventually left the club in search of minutes, with Crystal Palace set to be the perfect destination to cement himself as a first-choice Premier League shot-stopper.
However, that unfortunately hasn’t been the case after his £20m move, with a hamstring injury making him miss ten games between September and December.
Amad Diallo
£4m
Willy Kambwala
£4m
Altay Bayindir
£4m
Jonny Evans
£4m
Dean Henderson
£4m
As you can see, this has caused his value to decrease significantly, to the point where he is worth three times less than Maguire's £13m. Indeed, he would now be among the lowest-valued first-team players in the United squad.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as though things will be looking up for Henderson either, with new boss Oliver Glasner opting for Sam Johnstone as his number one, which has seen the "shaky" goalkeeper, as dubbed by journalist Josh Bunting, sit on the bench in the last four games.
Therefore, it’s clear that making £20m profit on Henderson was a masterstroke from United, which enabled them to complete a goalkeeper department overhaul themselves in the summer.