Benjamin Sesko: How are Manchester United able to afford £74m striker?

Whether about a raft of redundancies or free lunches for staff being scrapped, news surrounding Manchester United’s finances has not been positive.

Which will have left fans wondering how they are able to fund a move for RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko, amid a £200m refurbishment of their attack for next season.

The answer lies in some clever financing of their summer transfers both in and out – and some of the reports of their death being greatly exaggerated.

“If Manchester United sneeze, football catches a cold,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport.

“It is the biggest brand in English football. The redundancies do look severe, but that is the Ineos business model, they have done that at other companies. Whether it will work in football, we have to wait and see.”

United sources previously outlined to the BBC’s chief football news reporter Simon Stone how it is possible for them to reach an agreement on Sesko, even though co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said earlier this year there was the potential for the club to go bust by Christmas without massive cost-cutting measures.

Payment arrangements for the deals this summer for Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo from Wolves and Brentford respectively, which total £130m, have been arranged in a favourable way.

It is likely any deal for Sesko would be arranged similarly, with the payment spread over the length of the player’s contract.

In addition, the entirety of Marcus Rashford’s £325,000-a-week salary is being covered by his loan move to Barcelona and Manchester United received £5m from Chelsea after the Blues pulled out of a deal to sign Jadon Sancho.

Manchester United have also received more than £15m in payments as part of sell-on clauses involving Anthony Elanga, Alvaro Carreras and Maxi Oyedele.