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Despite the Europa League disappointment, Manchester United under Erik ten Hag have shown definite signs of improvement and the Carabao Cup triumph has added gloss to the season.
Sunday will be yet another test which will shed further light on which areas of the squad the Dutch boss needs to do improve ahead next season.
This summer will be pivotal for the Red Devils and for it to be a summer of multiple arrivals, the club will need to improve on one aspect that has ailed them for too long.
United have struggled to sell well
The 20-time English league champions have not had the best track record when it comes to transfers since the great Sir Alex Ferguson retired, but their struggles while offloading stars has been even more noteworthy.
As The Athletic pointed out, United have made a profit on just four players in the past decade, and even then those numbers are marginal.
The best deal purely in terms of profit is the £10million they got extra for Daniel James, whom they sent to Leeds United.
Chris Smalling‘s transfer to Roma fetched the club an additional £8.1million while they also made £1m from Javier Hernandez and an extra £300,000 from Daley Blind‘s departure.
As The Sun had pointed out earlier, the club also made a profit from selling Alexander Buttner to Dynamo Moscow in 2014.
United had signed the left-back two years earlier from Dutch side Vitesse for £4m and eventually moved him on for a reported £5.6m.
With FFP restrictions, United will be required to sell well in order to help raise enough capital in order to balance the books especially with the manager expected to make at least two big signings.
Outgoings will influence incomings at United this summer
The profit on player sales does not include academy products move on and this season it is unlikely that the club will earn more than what they paid for certain players.
As already reported by The Peoples Person, at least 15 first-team stars are in danger of being shipped out and none are expected fetch a profit for United.
The likes of Harry Maguire and Anthony Martial were made the costliest defender and young star at their time of arrival and they are not close to matching those levels.
But the club must try and offload their stars for decent money and it seems academy products might offer the best chance at earning profits this time.
The likes of Dean Henderson, Scott McTominay, Anthony Elanga and Brandon Williams are expected to leave and the club can earn a lot of profit from their departures.
United are open to selling Henderson for £30 million while they slapped a £50million price tag on McTominay amid interest from Newcastle.
Elanga could fetch €25million and Williams €10million as per Transfermarkt.
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