The £48m star player Manchester United should sell this summer to help them move forward

Manchester United may finally be picking up a head of steam under interim head coach Michael Carrick, but this will still be a summer of change at Old Trafford. Whether or not that includes the manager remains to be seen, but there will certainly be plenty of movement in the playing squad.

There are still a few players whose presence in the side is little more than a hangover from the recruitment mistakes made under Erik ten Hag and Ruben Amorim, and it’s hard to imagine the likes of Joshua Zirkzee staying past the end of the season. There is also a great deal of improvement required across several parts of the squad – Carrick may be getting a tune out of his team, but it’s hard to imagine that the attack and midfield don’t receive a much-needed overhaul.

All of that costs money, and one thing United have been quite bad at in recent seasons is selling players. Too many players have moved to Manchester for hefty sums, struggled, and then been sold on at a dead loss. If they’re going to rebuild the squad without cutting corners, it may mean selling some perfectly good players who will actually fetch a tidy sum – and one sacred cow in particular stands out as a potential sacrificial lamb.

Why Manchester United should consider selling Lisandro Martínez this summer

Centre-back Lisandro Martínez has been one of the few unreserved successes of Manchester United’s transfer business over the past few years – a consistently impressive defender with few weaknesses, no shortage of comfort on the ball or under pressure, and with the versatility to adapt to different tactical systems. On the face of it, he’s just about the last player United would want to lose.

The problem, however, is that Martínez isn’t available anywhere near as often as United would like. Even before a ruptured ACL ruled him out for most of 2025, he had missed the equivalent of around eight months with foot, calf and knee injuries across the 2022/23 and 2023/24 campaigns.

When he’s been available and called upon he has been reliable and consistent, but that’s become rather rare. He will also be entering the final year of his contract at Old Trafford next season, and although the club have the option to extend it for another year, United are entering the final point at which they could sell him at the peak of his value. He’s 28 and in what should be his prime.

Keep hold of Martínez, and United would be keeping a fine player but one whose value will only depreciate and whose fitness is a constant concern. Sell, and United could get a fairly hefty sum. Caught Offside allege that Barcelona are interested and could pay as much as €55m (£48m). That could just be idle gossip, but it’s not an implausible transfer fee to receive from a team who are willing to overlook any red flags that pop up in a medical.

It still makes sense to hang on to Martínez if it’s judged that he will be essential to the manager’s plans, whether that be Carrick or some other worthy successor. But as fine of a player as he is, he may not be the kind of player who’s beyond replacing.

Why Manchester United don’t truly need Martínez going forward

Even if it was assumed that Martínez would be fit and healthy for the bulk of the next two years, it’s debatable as to whether he’s a truly indispensable member of the squad.

United have Matthijs de Ligt and the experienced Luke Shaw and need to find ways to hand opportunities to Leny Yoro and Ayden Heaven, both of whom have shown considerable potential if not yet consistency. They likely won’t have Harry Maguire after the summer, but he could likely be signed to a new short-term contract if necessary.

That’s four or five centre-back options already, and if United continue playing a back four that’s also likely enough. Four senior centre-backs is already an elegant sufficiency and it makes little sense to pay a salary for another when those wages could be spent on more problematic positions such as midfielder and up front.

The same logic, of course, also applies to De Ligt, another reliable but injury-prone centre-back, but the Dutchman is both younger and on a longer-term contract, and will maintain saleable value for longer if kept around. Moving on from him would also be entirely defensible, but Martínez is the player who is only going to get cheaper and cheaper, and whose injury issues have been the more significant of the two.

If United’s next manager chooses to go back to a back three, a system to which the rest of the squad seem singularly unsuited, then keeping Martínez is probably necessary – he is comfortable playing as the outside defender on either side and has the requisite technical quality. Given how much better United have looked with a back four, however, it’s hard to imagine that they revert.

Martínez is an excellent defender, but could also be a necessary sacrifice whose departure would hurt rather less than may seem likely on the surface, especially given how often he is himself hurt. United are likely to spend vast sums on their midfield with players like Adam Wharton, Carlos Baleba and Elliot Anderson on the radar. Striking those kind of deals may require sales to be made in order to comply with Premier League and UEFA financial regulations – and moving on from Martínez may just be the best way to earn a significant transfer fee without causing substantive damage to the squad.