What is the 'Man Utd tax'? BONKERS Branthwaite price and more overpriced transfer fees

Tom Weber

• Updated: 18 Jun 2024 05:46 CDT
• 5 min read

Tax is in the news right now with the Conservative Party and Labour Party arguing about the thorny topic ahead of the UK General Election, but football has its own version as well.

Manchester United, thanks to being a commercial behemoth and arguably the biggest club in the world, also have a tax of their own.

The 'Man Utd tax' has become an infamous phrase over the past decade or so, mostly being used on social media to describe the Red Devils' poor transfer business and the propensity for selling clubs to overcharge United.

The Manchester giants have become notorious for overspending on targets and this has been a particularly glaring issue since the Glazers took over the club in 2005.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, Man Utd have been in their so-called 'banter era,' having not won a Premier League title since the legendary Scot departed.

READ MORE: Latest Man Utd transfer news

In that time, they have flushed a fortune down the drain on flop transfers, often allowing themselves to be held to ransom by selling clubs. This, then, is the Man Utd tax.

It is the idea that clubs can easily bully Man Utd into overpaying for players and this tactic has certainly been successful in recent years.

Man Utd tax: Antony, Pogba...Branthwaite?

To get an idea of just how much money Man Utd have wasted over the past decade or so, one must only look at their record transfers. Their 15 most expensive signings all arrived in the post-Ferguson era and success stories have been few and far between.

In 2016, Man Utd splashed a then-world-record €105 million on Paul Pogba, who went on to become a major flop. He eventually returned to Juventus on a free transfer.

In 2022, Antony was signed for €95m from Ajax and he has unquestionably been one of the worst signings in Premier League history. Man Utd panicked towards the end of Erik ten Hag's first transfer window at the club and massively overspent on a player even their own scouting department reportedly didn't deem good enough.

Harry Maguire - for years the world's most expensive defender - Jadon Sancho, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Romelu Lukaku are just a few more examples of the Red Devils paying huge sums for players who subsequently went on to flop at Old Trafford.

The 10 most expensive Man Utd signings of all time

READ MORE: Man Utd’s 10 most expensive transfers of all time

To demonstrate just how much Man Utd overpaid for many of their signings in recent years, we can compare their actual transfer fees to their Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) at the time of their transfer.

ETV is a market-leading transfer valuation algorithm designed and developed by Dutch data company SciSports, in partnership with FootballTransfers.

A player’s ETV is calculated by a variety of factors, namely: Skill, potential, recent performance, level of competition, contract duration, position and age.

Man Utd Transfer fees vs Estimated Transfer Value (ETV)

United paid over or almost double the ETV of Maguire and Hojlund, splashed out almost triple the value of Antony, and went almost five times over the odds on Wan-Bissaka. They only appeared - at the time - to have got a good deal on Sancho, whose ETV was actually €13.6m more than his transfer fee. However, Sancho ended up being a flop as well.

With INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe now on board, Man Utd are trying to avoid similar situations from occurring in the future and their pursuit of Everton's Jarrad Branthwaite appears to be the first manifestation of this.

The England international is Man Utd's top target, but the Red Devils are ready to move on from him unless Everton lower their demands of €80m+.

This would appear to be a wise decision as his ETV is just €26.2m, demonstrating just how much 'Man Utd tax' Everton are adding on his fee.

Fabrizio Romano has announced that "Man Utd will not accept any kind of 'tax' to invest on centre-backs just because in the past they paid big money for other centre-backs."