It was noticeable during Omar Berrada's first summer as Manchester United chief executive that the club never broke the £60million barrier for a signing. For years, Berrada's former employers at Manchester City privately bragged that they seldom spent more than £60m on a player. Jose Mourinho felt he was on a hiding to nothing against a state-backed club but it was a matter of quality more than quantity with City. To date, City have spent in excess of that figure on only four players: Rodri, Ruben Dias, Jack Grealish and Josko Gvardiol. Grealish is the sole failure and his best season still coincided with City's treble triumph. Leny Yoro was United's most expensive acquisition last year for an up front fee of £52.18m. The deal could total £58.91m. Already this summer, United have crept above the £60m mark for Matheus Cunha, who had a reasonable release clause of £62.5m. Bryan Mbeumo, who outscored Cunha and everyone else in the Premier League bar Erling Haaland, Alexander Isak and Mohamed Salah, could fetch an identical fee. That is the going rate for a Premier League-standard forward. Only one of United's five arrivals last year was an attacker and Joshua Zirkzee also had a release clause. He was based in Italy, whose league has been in decline for nearly two decades and has become a dumping ground for English clubs. Ie. not United material but nearly as economical as Jasprit Bumrah's bowling. Sensibly, United have sought forwards with Premier League pedigree this year. Liam Delap was another they wanted on board and the eventual identity of their new No.9 (to consider Cunha or Mbeumo as one would be a complete cop-out) will be curious as it is unlikely to be a domestic deal. Before he purged his Twitter account, Berrada revelled in how much United had overpaid for Angel di Maria in 2014. Di Maria, a reigning Champions League winner who had recently helped Argentina to reach the World Cup final, commanded a British-record £59.7m fee. The problem with Di Maria was not the fee but the fact that he did not want to move to Manchester. United had a free run as Paris Saint-Germain, Di Maria's preferred choice, were out of the running due to financial fair play issues. Di Maria effectively covered the cost of James Rodriguez, Madrid's vanity signing. They still had change to get Toni Kroos, possibly the bargain of the decade, at £20m. Ed Woodward had also incepted the United tax by signing Marouane Fellaini for £4.5m more than was necessary in 2013. Back when FFP was not an issue for United and profitability and sustainability rules had not entered the football lexicon, Woodward operated as though spending inflated fees was a sound strategy. Luke Shaw became football's most expensive teenager two months before Di Maria was driven through the barriers at Carrington. Erik ten Hag aimed high in the Premier League market and the price was not right for United. They were not in the running when Declan Rice was available in 2023, having already earmarked Mason Mount as their central midfield target, and refused to test the waters with Tottenham for Harry Kane. Those two England internationals cost £187m combined when they moved to Arsenal and Bayern Munich. The negotiations of those deals involved 'big six' clubs, whereas Cunha and Mbeumo are more affordable, having operated outside of the elite, and are not England internationals. Brentford were looking for between £50m and £60m for Ivan Toney last year until it transpired that no Premier League clubs would meet them at the table. That drove his price down to £40m for Al Ahli. Mbeumo, in contrast, generated interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United and outperformed any of Toney's top-flight campaigns before he decided on United. So he was never going to be as cheap. £60m is a figure that came to define United's 2023 summer window, one of their worst. Everyone at the club maintained that was the maximum they would pay for Rasmus Hojlund. Eventually, they overpaid with a final package of £72m. On the eve of the 2024 window, Berrada warned United would be on a "slippery slope" if they overpaid clubs, players and agents. Their spending was more disciplined, even if it eventually totalled £206m, but this year it is needs must after United's worst season in 51 years. A little more than £120m for two of the best forwards in the Premier League last season is a statement. United have made savings through their existence outside of the Champions League. For the third season out of four, players will be on a reduced salary due to their failure to qualify for the competition again. Two rounds of redundancies and slashing the non-playing workforce by roughly a third have also freed up funds after a decrease of £20m year-on-year on employee benefit expenses. United's net cash inflow of £22.3m during the last quarter was an increase of £7.2m from the same quarter last year. Sir Jim Ratcliffe's remark that United could have gone "bust" by Christmas always sounded like scaremongering. PSR has genuinely compromised them (they loaned in Wout Weghorst as Cristiano Ronaldo's mid-season replacement when Cody Gakpo was available), only it was undermined by squandering £625.43m under Ten Hag. United's market movement under Berrada has been hitherto inoffensive but the greater the price, the greater the scrutiny. And United are now going north of £60m.