Man Utd finally acting like adults with £100m Ivan Toney decision after Casemiro cock-up

After years of transfer briefings from Manchester United designed to make them look like a loadsamoney behemoth that can hoover up the world’s shiniest talent, it is really quite refreshing to see the club brief that they are attempting to become a club that makes sensible, considered decisions. Less ‘we are the biggest and bestest’ and more ‘we are no longer the daftest’.

Whether that’s the early influence of Omar Berrada, whose Manchester City never had to win games in the media because they were too busy destroying the opposition on the pitch, or simply a new, emerging regime with an emphasis on actual trophies rather than trophy players, it feels like a welcome (for them, not us) departure from the Banter Era.

There’s no fanciful talk from Manchester United about pursuing Kylian Mbappe, while any lofty talk about Vinicius has originated from Spain; but there have been lines fed to the press about Michael Olise and Jarrad Branthwaite amid a ‘data-driven reboot’, persistent talk of targeting players in the final year of their contracts, and now a refusal to get involved in a battle for Ivan Toney if the price is anywhere north of £70m.

After a dead January killed at source by widespread fear of FFP ramifications, the idea that any club would spend anywhere close to £100m on a 28-year-old striker is absurd. Those kind of deals should be reserved for a Ronaldo or a Harry Kane, and Toney is far from being either.

It’s not just Manchester United that should be wary but every club in the Premier League. Chelsea have long been linked with Toney but the kings of amortisation would surely not countenance a transfer in which a 30-year-old Toney would have a book value of £60m after two years of a five-year contract.

To Brentford, Toney is worth at least £100m, but a transfer fee captures a moment when a player’s value to two clubs collides, and Toney – who at 28 will be into ‘little sell-on value’ territory this summer – is not worth £100m to any prospective buyer. Never mind an actual profit (those are always rare on big-ticket players), there will never be a book profit on that purchase.

Now some will roll their eyes at such notions, but clubs do have to operate within guidelines and there are reasons why City in particular have refused to go above a certain price or a certain wage for a succession of players. Unlimited money does have limits in football; just ask Newcastle United.

If any transfer should serve as a warning to Manchester United, it is not that of Antony – whose age offers some mitigation for his inflated fee – but Casemiro. United spent an initial £60m and committed massive wages to a player who will be worth only marginally more than nothing just two years later. There is a chance that Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez might catch up with their book values at some point during their mammoth contracts but Casemiro never could. It was a panic buy that only Manchester United would have made.

A summer-long pursuit of Frenkie de Jong should never have happened without concrete assurances, and there should have been a dozen alternatives with the same profile. The answer should never have been to throw a shedload of cash at an expensive, ageing money pit in the last days of the transfer window.

Toney is no Casemiro but at £100m it would be a similarly short-term purchase, and it would not even solve United’s biggest issue. It’s too easy to say that Manchester United need a goalscorer; actually, they have created far, far fewer Big Chances than even Brentford this season. It’s not that Rasmus Hojlund is missing a boatload of chances that Toney would despatch. United do need another striker but if there is a sizeable transfer pot, centre-forward should not take the bulk of that money. A chance of style is needed, not a change in personnel in one position.

It does feel like Manchester United are finally learning – 11 years after they paid Everton more than the buy-out clause for Marouane Fellaini – to operate like adults in the transfer market.

We’re going to be so disappointed when they pay Brentford £120m for Toney on August 31.