Chelsea claim Man Utd paid double for Andrey Santos – are they right?

Manchester United signed Andrey Santos from Chelsea in a deal worth €56 million. Blues insiders feel that their Premier League rivals paid well over the odds for the Brazilian – but are they right?

Andrey Santos was one of three major midfield signings that United made in the summer. He arrived at Old Trafford along with Carlos Baleba from Brighton and Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa.

This midfield overhaul was not just the most important business that Michael Carrick’s side did in the summer, it was the only business of note they conducted to upgrade the first-team squad.

With the Red Devils struggling this season, doubts are being voiced over their signings. Baleba, for instance, pulled up injured against Roma and appears set for a lengthy absence.

Now the wisdom in signing Andrey Santos for €56m is being questioned from within Chelsea.

According to a report from The Athletic, there was a belief at Stamford Bridge that the young Brazil international was “worth half that price”.

But who is right?

Andrey Santos’ Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) is €54.9m, and though this is the highest value of his career, it is a figure that has not wavered significantly over the last 12 months.

When United signed him in the summer, his ETV was sitting at €49.3m, a little below his sale price but not an outrageous among over that figure. And the Manchester side’s stance in signing him has since been justified by the small rise he has enjoyed since.

With ETV calculated using a variety of factors and heavily reliant on in-game data points, the Andrey Santos deal is one that both Chelsea and Man Utd got a fair price for.

But with United’s sporting hierarchy coming under fire, did the Old Trafford side get good value for their other summer signings?

Carlos Baleba was signed in a €75.9m deal from Brighton in late August.

The pattern for the 22-year-old Cameroon star is similar to that of Andrey Santos. United paid marginally above the player’s ETV, which has since enjoyed a small improvement since he moved to Manchester.

Currently, Baleba is worth €69.7m, which is just shy of his career-best €70.2m.

So here there was once again a small overpayment, but it was nothing concerning.

The case of Youri Tielemans was slightly different because he had a release clause in his deal that made the transaction bringing him from Aston Villa much easier. United paid €41m for the Belgium international, who was worth around €40m at the time.

Where the Red Devils did struggle with Tielemans, though, was in terms of his contract. At 29 years old, he has a five-year deal at Old Trafford, and the wisdom of tying him down until 2031 is a consequence that the club will have to cope with as a player not famed for his mobility slows down as he gets older.

United did not necessarily do anything outrageous in terms of overpaying for players in the summer, but equally they did not make any particularly good additions either.

In going for quality over quantity, though, they had to make sure that they got their business spot on, and the early evidence suggests they got that calculation wrong.