I am starting to think, as soon as United asks for a player, other teams start to ask for more. Like for example, in this case, Mbuemo was from Brentford, and lets say some smaller team, like for example Aston Villa, approached them and asked for him, maybe they would have let him go for 40-50 million, I mean he was still too good to sell for 10-20 or whatever, but 40-50 could have happened but when teams hear United ring them up for a player, they start to charge more? Maybe that is the case?
Like there is a tax for being United and rich and made same mistakes before? You do not ask from other rich clubs the same thing, because if you do, they just leave the table, but when you do that to United, they accept, so people take advantage of their situation maybe?
some clubs have a brand image. i.e. when you hear the name of that club in an event, there is an emotion, an experience that it makes you feel.
for example, if you buy a young player from ajax, and he is a youth player, regardless of what he has done so far, regardless of his ability and what he can do, you will pay more money just because you buy him from ajax than if you buy him from another team. because ajax has created an image for itself as a club that produces solid youth players and sells them to big clubs.
maybe it's the same with manchester united. whoever they buy, just because they're manchester united, the other team is prepared to ask for more than they would normally. because manchester united are famous for this kind of thing. if they're going to buy someone with a name, they'll pay more than what they have to.