Manchester United has reached an agreement on the future of Alexis Sanchez and Chris Smalling.
The couple will continue their loans in Italy with Inter and Roma, which expired at the end of June.
While this should have been a simple decision, it was far from being due to the Europa League.
UEFA rules state that players on loan cannot be declared ineligible to play their parent teams, in the same way United could determine that Dean Henderson could not face them in the Premier League.
There was room for embarrassment here, if Sanchez had scored the goal of knocking out United, or Chris Smalling had closed United, in a potential one-off match with Inter or Roma in the Europa League tournament which would take place in August.
Cleverly, United has come up with an alternative solution that prevents Smalling or Sanchez from playing against the club.
United announced on the club’s website that Smalling and Sanchez’s loans will last until the end of the Serie A season. Until August 2.
The Europa League starts again a week later, with the final set taking place on August 21st.
Eurosport Italia speculation, Sanchez, could play in Inter’s last return game against Getafe on August 6, but it would be.
Smart decision
It would be useless to block the loan extensions for Sanchez and Smalling for the rest of the championship season. Their clubs would therefore have no reason to contribute to their salary. At least in this way United saves a bit.
Neither player is likely to play again for United. But it is wise for United to block them, damaging us in the Europa League.
There is so much on the line, a trophy and a place in the Champions League, it would be humiliating and disastrous if Sanchez scored a goal that cost us a trophy and millions of television revenues, while the club still pays half of his salary.
United made the right choice and, if it weren’t for the block and the delay of the season, we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to do so.
This is a smart move by United, and if Sanchez or Smalling has a problem, since he is denied the chance to compete for a trophy, this should strengthen their determination to leave the club permanently.
Selling them should be United’s goal, to get them out of wage books and get small commissions to increase our transfer funds. If this pushes them closer to pushing for that, then that’s another bonus.
United has not done everything well, but this is a decision that seems to have resolved with cunning.
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