The "United Tax" - fact or myth?

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Given the news about Sporting fecking us around with the Bruno fee I've seen a few posts referencing the "United Tax" in which people believe clubs have higher asking prices for their player when United come knocking. Do you believe this? I mean Maguire's asking price was £80m for City too, which is why they backed out. Has anyone ever flat out rejected a bid by us and accepted a bid by another club for the same amount?

The only example I can think of is Morata. Madrid demanded £80m from us, then sold him to Chelsea for £60m.

 

[Jacckk1985]

Ever since the Hazard from Lille, it's been a thing. And we were more adamant to avoid in the past, but slipped some deals in due our despair and it's really hard to make it go away now. Probably one of reasons we haven't appointed a DOF yet, that needs a special kind of person.

 

[izec]

Given the news about Sporting fecking us around with the Bruno fee I've seen a few posts referencing the "United Tax" in which people believe clubs have higher asking prices for their player when United come knocking. Do you believe this? I mean Maguire's asking price was £80m for City too, which is why they backed out. Has anyone ever flat out rejected a bid by us and accepted a bid by another club for the same amount?

The only example I can think of is Morata. Madrid demanded £80m from us, then sold him to Chelsea for £60m.

That could have been because of De Gea though

I dont think it exists in that sense, but we like to overspend and have money, so of course the majority of smaller clubs are going to ask money from us. I dont think it is necessarily a United tax in the true sense of the meaning, because it carries a negative connotation and exclusivity. But i do think clubs try to maximise the fees, so of course United is always a good candidate to try that, but most big clubs/clubs with money are, especially if they flex or like to show it

 

[Rozay]

It’s obviously nonsense.

 

[Lynty]

More so an EPL tax.

 

[AshRK]

The club definitely tries to play hard ball because of our reputation but the way we have handled transfer market since 2013 has been abysmal so naturally other clubs will take advantage of that. There have been too many leaks and none from the club has tried to stop it. Our name has been used for almost every player looking for a move. I know we as a club cannot control everything but sometimes it is better to just have the club official say we are not for this player. I remember Real and Barca doing that for some player and it gives a fair warning to the press to stop using the club's name.

 

[OleBoiii]

More so an EPL tax.

Mostly this, but I reckon that there's a "rich team tax" on top of this. Wolves would probably have to pay less for a player than City, Liverpool and us. We shouldn't underestimate the "rich + struggling tax" either. If Liverpool wants to sign a player this summer, then the team they deal with will genuinely have to fear Liverpool pulling out of the deal, as they don't really need the player. Us though? Good luck trying convince anyone that we don't need a midfielder

 

[Sylar]

Post Fergie, I dont think it helps when you brag
"We can do things in the transfer market that other clubs can only dream of. Watch this space."

Once clubs know were desperate, you would try maximise that.

 

[Sky1981]

If bill gates or zuckerberg wants to buy redcafe.net

Do you think niall would ask for peanuts?

 

[Lynty]

Mostly this, but I reckon that there's a "rich team tax" on top of this. Wolves would probably have to pay less for a player than City, Liverpool and us. We shouldn't underestimate the "rich + struggling tax" either. If Liverpool wants to sign a player this summer, then the team they deal with will genuinely have to fear Liverpool pulling out of the deal, as they don't really need the player. Us though? Good luck trying convince anyone that we don't need a midfielder

Agreed.

Simple supply and demand.

We desperately needed an experienced Center Back last summer. Napoli knew this, Leicester knew this. There wasn't many other options - so they set the price high. Now the exact same thing is happening with Bruno.

 

[2 man midfield]

It’s more just clubs who aren’t short of a few quid. It’s simple supply and demand basically, if the selling club know you’re loaded then they’ll want more.

 

[Zlatattack]

It wouldn't be a thing if we chased more than 1 target at a time. When was the last time we turned down a deal because of the asking price, and publicly stated so?

 

[DVG7]

We have a lot of money and an obvious need for reinforcements. I don’t blame clubs for raising the price, the same way I don’t blame service stations on the motorways charging more than triple the average price for everything, because they know people will buy it anyway.

 

[Infra-red]

There's surely an Ed Woodward tax. When that clown calls you up, as Chief Exec of another club or a player agent, you must start rubbing your hands together in glee.

 

[Class of 63]

It's been happening since Adam was a lad .... and the one that always sticks in my mind:

Circa 1987 we tried to sign Peter Beardsley from Newcastle United, we bid £1.7m for him which was rejected, we kept going back with improved offers right up to £2.3m at which point Newcastle said they wouldn't sell him even if we offered £3m - a few months later he signed for Liverpool for £1.9m.

 

[Sandikan]

It’s obviously nonsense.

In what way is it nonsense?
Do you think other english teams are charged what we are?

 

[Hammondo]

In what way is it nonsense?
Do you think other english teams are charged what we are?

I do yes.

 

[Rozay]

In what way is it nonsense?
Do you think other english teams are charged what we are?

Yes, if we were trying to sign the exact same player, which rarely happens.

 

[Hammondo]

I think its nonsense. We are not well known for being a big spending club in the grand scale of things, we just consistently spend a reasonable amount.
I think we sometimes target players from teams that do not want to sell, and have no reason to sell. This naturally puts up the price for anyone.

On top of that I think we are really buy at valuing players for ourselves when we buy, so we think "ok this player is worth 70m so lets offer them X", when in reality they are not worth that much.

 

[OleBoiii]

Do you think other english teams are charged what we are?

Before Klopp's arrival, Liverpool used to overpay for mediocre players all the time.

City, in their quest to become the new powerhouse post Fergie, have also over-payed for quite a few defenders over the years.

 

[Acole9]

Myth - There's a bunch of United fans who are so paranoid that the whole world is against us.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

I'm on the myth side myself too.

I think we are just unwise in the transfer market. Liverpool signed Fabinho, van Dijk & Salah for a combined £150m the same season we dropped just under £150m on Lindelof, Matic & Lukaku.

For almost identical money they got 3 indispensable key players while we got 3 players who many fans have labelled as donkeys.

 

[Amerifan]

There’s an EPL tax, a large club tax, and a desperation tax from the agent, plus a not CL qualifying surcharge, a poor league position surcharge, a manager desirability surcharge, a teammate desirability surcharge, and a location desirability surcharge.

 

[Hammondo]

There’s an EPL tax, a large club tax, and a desperation tax from the agent, plus a not CL qualifying surcharge, a poor league position surcharge, a manager desirability surcharge, a teammate desirability surcharge, and a location desirability surcharge.

What a load of nonsense.

 

[Maticmaker]

It's been happening since Adam was a lad

Agreed, every time United's interest in a player is known the price goes up, it goes back decades. The problem is that ever since the early 1960's (e.g. Albert Quixall from Sheffield Wednesday, price bumped up from £45,000 to £48,000 because United came calling) we have nearly always 'stumped up'... until relatively recently that is when Ed Woodward, buoyed by his success with winning lucrative sponsorship deals started to flex his 'negotiating muscles' to try to demonstrate his a 'transfer expertise'.

We all know how successful that has been

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Post Fergie, I dont think it helps when you brag
"We can do things in the transfer market that other clubs can only dream of. Watch this space."

Once clubs know were desperate, you would try maximise that.

And yet people want ole to say we are desperate for transfers in every interview

 

[Sirob26]

Its absolutely a real thing but it's no longer just about us.

The other club wants as much cash as possible and one of the richest clubs in the world asks to buy an asset. Obviously they are going to go for every last penny.

Similarly if Leicester were to try to buy another centre back last season every club they'd speak to would ask for £80m.

The utd tax element just refers to when we were much richer than most 1st division/ early premier league clubs. As others have pointed out it's a fairly old phrase.

More recently a good couple of clubs have similar budgets so they'll also see inflated values.

 

[Hammondo]

Its absolutely a real thing but it's no longer just about us.

The other club wants as much cash as possible and one of the richest clubs in the world asks to buy an asset. Obviously they are going to go for every last penny.

Similarly if Leicester were to try to buy another centre back last season every club they'd speak to would ask for £80m.

The utd tax element just refers to when we were much richer than most 1st division/ early premier league clubs. As others have pointed out it's a fairly old phrase.

More recently a good couple of clubs have similar budgets so they'll also see inflated values.

That's nonsense though. The sale off Maguire doesn't affect other purchases. Prices are decided by the market.

 

[Acheron]

It's a combination of things, like not being a very attractive destination for players, being an English rich club and other clubs knowing you're desperate and bad at negotiations overall.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Given the news about Sporting fecking us around with the Bruno fee I've seen a few posts referencing the "United Tax" in which people believe clubs have higher asking prices for their player when United come knocking. Do you believe this? I mean Maguire's asking price was £80m for City too, which is why they backed out. Has anyone ever flat out rejected a bid by us and accepted a bid by another club for the same amount?

The only example I can think of is Morata. Madrid demanded £80m from us, then sold him to Chelsea for £60m.

City are also a moneybags club so your point about Maguire is moot.

 

[Camilo]

It's complete nonsense obviously. It's just another thing a few poor defensless United supporters need to feel better about how shit we are.

 

[Zen86]

There’s an EPL tax, a large club tax, and a desperation tax from the agent, plus a not CL qualifying surcharge, a poor league position surcharge, a manager desirability surcharge, a teammate desirability surcharge, and a location desirability surcharge.

Plus an extra bonus charge for all of the above, aka the “United tax”

 

[Kostur]

Load of bollocks in my book but when you've got a dumb cnut of a CEO telling everybody that we're capable of shit in the market nobody else is then who the feck knows really.

 

[dove]

Nonsense. We might be easier to get fleeced and borderline scammed but it's purely down to us, not because teams asking asking more for the same player from us than other teams.