Double signing, £60m deal and Euro 2024 gem - The transfer trend Manchester United can exploit

The transfer market has changed unrecognisably over the last four years. The blow to club finances inflicted by Covid-19 and the tightening of spending rules in domestic leagues have contributed to a seismic shift in the power balance in the market.

Clubs on the continent have seen their clout significantly reduced. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are still capable of pulling off the odd big deal - see Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham last summer - but others can't operate as they used to. Debts have engulfed Barcelona, who are being reined by La Liga's cost control, and Juventus are no longer a major force in the market.

Premier League clubs coped with the loss of revenue during Covid-19 better than their European counterparts and for a while held sway in the market. A trend of English clubs selling players to each other has only risen in recent seasons. Sometimes the only buyer for a player you want to shift is a domestic rival, as Manchester City have discovered in the cases of Raheem Sterling, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus.

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Manchester United capitalised on that last summer by signing Mason Mount from Chelsea, the first time they had paid a fee to a top-six rival for a player since signing Nemanja Matic.

Now, though, another trend is beginning to emerge, which is players having release clauses inserted into their contract, giving them some control over their future. The transfer budget might be bordering on the unlimited in Saudi Arabia, but a lot of players in their prime don't see it as an attractive option.

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