Back in June, it was revealed that Manchester United had replaced Real Madrid as the world’s most valuable football club.Yep, despite the fact they’d just finished sixth in the Premier League table, the Red Devils were still raking in the cash.Forbes revealed that United are now worth a staggering £2.86 billion; the world record £89.3 million transfer fee they’d paid Juventus for Paul Pogba less than a year earlier a mere drop in the ocean in comparison.With that in mind, it’s a little surprising that they aren’t firmly in the battle for either Neymar or Kylian Mbappe this summer.It’s no secret that United have been closely monitoring Neymar for several years now, while Mbappe appears to have the potential to become a genuine superstar. So why aren’t United at least attempting to sign either player?

Duncan Castles explains why

Journalist Duncan Castles has explained why on the latest episode of ’The Transfer Window’ podcast.

And it’s all down to the Glazer family, apparently.

“Manchester United are an economic project and the Glazers don’t own Manchester United because they like football, they own it to make money,” Castles explains. “They were very clever at the time they bought the club.

“Yes, they’ve spent heavily on transfers, heavily on player contracts, heavily on recruiting managers in recent years but there’s a limit to how much they’ll spend and it seems that something like a deal for Kylian Mbappe, which is a player they’ve looked at, or a deal for Neymar, which is a player they were extensively involved in examining whether they could sign him or not… When those deals are priced at €180 million for the transfer fee alone, €220 million to pay the release clause alone, that’s beyond the amount of money the Glazers are prepared to sanction for those deals.

“So, bizarrely, because they are the richest club in the world, they’ve been priced out of these deals this summer.”

World transfer record set to be obliterated

It was reported on Tuesday that Real Madrid have ‘agreed’ a €180 million deal for Mbappe, although this has since been denied by AS Monaco.

Neymar, meanwhile, could still end up at Paris Saint-Germain despite Gerard Pique’s ‘He Stays’ tweet which appeared to confirm the Brazilian’s decision to remain at the Camp Nou.

Either deal would obliterate the current world transfer record, which still belongs to United and Pogba, but the Glazers clearly feel neither Neymar nor Mbappe are worth the incredible transfer fees being reported.