Paul Ince's sharpest point is not about Marcus Rashford. It is about Manchester United spending £50m on Andrey Santos when Kobbie Mainoo is already there. Ince, speaking to goal.com, said the idea of paying that much for a young central midfielder while Mainoo is coming through the ranks “kind of baffled me a bit.”

Mainoo's case in the middle

The former United midfielder did not just wave away Santos. He described the Chelsea man as a £50m signing from Chelsea, pointed to his 47 appearances, 3 goals and 5 assists for the club, and still questioned whether he should be the next big midfield purchase.

Mainoo is the reason the argument has bite. He made 30 appearances last season, with 1 goal and 3 assists, and Ince said that toward the back end of the season he started to “tackle, win balls, set things up, get himself in the box, make things happen.” Ince also said Mainoo “looks a completely different player.”

That is the stronger case here. Santos may have finished his Chelsea spell in decent shape, with a 7.1 average rating across his five most recent appearances and 1 goal in that run, but United are not shopping in a vacuum. If Mainoo is already giving them real senior minutes, another £50m central midfielder needs a cleaner explanation than Ince is hearing.

Rashford and Carrick's line

The Rashford angle sits behind all of this. Michael Carrick said, “Whoever's here, I want to work with, and help them improve. At the moment, it's this squad of players. There's obviously players on loan, and whatever happens with that later on will happen. But certainly, as a coach, and leader of a squad, we want to get the best out of everyone.”

That keeps the door open in principle, but it is still a separate issue from the Santos debate. Rashford has not played for United since December 2024, and his Barcelona situation remains unresolved after the Spanish club chose not to sign him permanently. The salary talk around him is messy too, with reports split between £325,000 and £300,000 a week.

For United, the more immediate question is whether they really need another expensive midfielder when Mainoo has already played 30 times in a season and forced the club to think harder about where the money should go next.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →