Sir Jim Ratcliffe has already revealed five players Man Utd 'are buying' as woes laid bare
Sir Jim Ratcliffe hasn't bitten his tongue when discussing Man Utd's financial limitations.
Manchester United's limitations in the summer transfer market are well-documented after missing out on European football next season. Any signings beyond the planned capture of Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo, following Matheus Cunha's £62.5million arrival from Wolves, will rely on player sales.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has made no secret of the financial turmoil he inherited when he purchased a 28.9 per cent stake in the club. In an interview with BBC Sport in March, the INEOS kingpin went as far as to say that United were set to run out of cash by the end of 2025 before his £233m injection. That bold statement didn't factor in the Red Devils' summer transfer business, emphasising the importance of offloading players to facilitate further arrivals.
Sir Jim delved deeper into the financial shackles that will restrict the club over the coming months by name-dropping five players yet to be paid for.
United have commonly made signings using instalments over the past decade, in which their reckless recruitment has yielded few success stories.
And Sir Jim claimed that, as a result, the club were technically "buying" a group of first-team stars on top of new arrivals this summer.
He said: "If you look at the players we are buying this summer that we didn't buy, we are buying Antony, we are buying Casemiro, we are buying Andre Onana, we are buying Rasmus Hojlund, we are buying Jadon Sancho.
"These are all things from the past, but whether we like it or not, we have inherited those things, and we have to sort it out.
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"For Sancho, who obviously now plays for Chelsea, and we pay half his wages, we are paying £17m to buy him in the summer.
"So it takes time for us to move away from the past into a new place in the future."
All five players mentioned are believed to be among the majority of United first-teamers placed in the shop window after one of the club's worst-ever seasons.
Onana has failed to convince across his two years at the club, while Hojlund has suffered a staggering regression from his promising debut campaign.
Casemiro enjoyed an individual renaissance this season, but he is 33 and isn't an ideal match for Ruben Amorim's system.
Sancho has no future at Old Trafford, despite Chelsea paying a £5m fine to send him back rather than make his loan permanent for £25m.
And United will hope Antony's new lease of life on loan at Real Betis will attract suitors and recoup some of his £86m fee.
Until Amorim manages to offload some of his players considered surplus to requirements, his summer business will likely halt after two incomings.
