Manchester United could reportedly be set to land a sizeable windfall from the sale of Dean Henderson to Crystal Palace as more details emerge.
According to The Sun’s Alan Nixon, Manchester United’s sale of Dean Henderson to Crystal Palace is laden with performance-related add-ons and bonuses.
Despite the criticism for not being able to shift out their fringe cast for significant money, Manchester United engineered a bit of a cleanout of the squad this summer, with several long-serving members leaving the building on a permanent basis.
One of those who banked United their highest transfer fee was Dean Henderson. The goalkeeper finally ended his 12-year stint with United, the club he supported as a boy, to pen a five-year deal at Selhurst Park.
The 26-year-old impressed away on loan, particularly during two stints with Sheffield United, before getting his chance to challenge David de Gea for the No. 1 spot at Old Trafford.
But with just 29 first-team appearances to his name, the shot-stopper “pushed through a loan move” to Nottingham Forest for the 2022–23 season after he infamously hit out at the club for the way they treated him as a second fiddle in a bombshell interview with talkSPORT.
Nevertheless, he was a standout performer for the Tricky Trees before his season was curtailed by a thigh injury. And the one-cap England international became surplus to requirements at his parent club following the signing of Andre Onana from Inter Milan.
Forest weren’t initially prepared to let the 26-year-old simply head back to Old Trafford and were in extensive talks with United to keep him around. However, the Forest deal fell through after the Garibaldi “haggled” over a loan-to-buy deal instead of a straight purchase.
Instead, Steve Cooper’s side opted for a cost-effective deal to buy USMNT international Matt Turner from Arsenal before fending off significant competition to land Odysseas Vlachodimos from Benfica on deadline day.
With United desperate for additional funds from sales, Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace swooped in and secured Henderson’s services for an initial fee of £15 million plus some add-ons as a replacement for wantaway Spanish shot-stopper Vicente Guaita, who later joined La Liga outfit Celta Vigo.
Now, The Sun has come out with further details on the add-ons, their amount, and the conditions it would take to activate them. Aside from the base fee, The Sun says United may receive a further £5 million based on appearances. The Red Devils will also be due 15 per cent of any sell-on fee generated by Palace in the future.
Although the numbers may seem insignificant at first glance, United’s troubles with Financial Fair Play implications mean they could use every single penny that comes their way, particularly for an academy graduate, as it will be recorded as pure profit in the club’s books.
