Very Specific Football Question No.48: When was the last time Manchester United made a profit on a transfer?

As one of the world’s premiere clubs, Manchester United are in the privileged position of being able to sign almost anyone they want.

Not Neymar, obviously. Or Gareth Bale. Or Thomas Muller. Or any of the other A-list stars they have tried and failed to buy in recent years. But move down a rung from the superstar bracket, and the rest of the transfer market is pretty much their oyster.

Most Premier League clubs, not to mention those in Spain, Italy, Germany and beyond, are generally powerless to prevent the Red Devils snaring their best players.

And today’s news that United have appointed 50 new scouts will put the club in an even stronger position when it comes to wheeling and dealing in the transfer market.

All of which begs the question, why are they so astonishingly bad at it?

A quick scan of United’s transfer dealings in recent years makes uncomfortable reading for the club’s transfer guru Ed Woodward, as well as his predecessor David Gill.

While there are some successful purchases in there - David de Gea for £18.9m in 2011, Daley Blind for £13.8m in 2014, perhaps - it’s startlingly evident that United have spent vast sums of money while getting very little back.

While this is to be fully expected at a big club, United’s record seems especially calamitous.

The expensive mistakes are well known. A £15m loss on Angel Di Maria and a similar amount wasted on Radamel Falcao. Writing off Bastian Schweinsteiger as an asset 12 months after buying him for £14m. Best of all, letting Paul Pogba leave for free and then spending a world record amount to get him back.

Sure, massive hits in the transfer market are all part of the process when you’re trying (very unsuccessfully) to create the best football team in the world.

But what about gains in the transfer market? Surely they should be part of the process too, given United’s ability to lure many of the world’s most talented and/or promising players. They should at least be turning in a profit on some of those deals, right?

Well, actually, no. Juicy transfer profits at Old Trafford are, like goals from Wayne Rooney, a thing of the past.

Aside from academy products such as Paddy McNair and Jonny Evans, who were not actually signed for money, you have to go back an awful long way to find the last time United sold a player for more than they’d paid for him.

When they offload an experienced or established player, they’re normally happy to take a big loss - £15m for Di Maria, £20m for Robin van Persie, £21m for Nani. It’s a long list. Marcos Rojo and Memphis Depay will likely be the next to join it.

But even when United’s extensive scouting network has identified players for the future, the same thing happens.

Nick Powell - snapped up for £5m, let go for free. Wilfried Zaha - signed from Crystal Palace for £15m, sold back to them for £6m.

Just this week, Javier Hernandez was linked with a £40m move to Valencia, little more than a year after the Red Devils sold him to Bayer Leverkusen for £7.3m (having paid £8m for him in 2010).

Meanwhile, Burnley defender Michael Keane has been the subject of big-money bids from Leicester and Chelsea, two years after United sold him for £2.5m.

In any other business, this level of financial clumsiness would warrant multiple sackings. But not football.

So when was the last time United actually made a profit on a transfer?

Woodward could try making a case for the Da Silva brothers, both sold on for small fees having been poached from Brazil for nothing. But given that the twins were essentially kids when they were signed, they’re more like academy players. Not to mention the fact that United probably paid agents more than their sale price to get them to England.

Meanwhile, a seemingly endless list of players, from Bebe to Berbatov, have left Old Trafford at a net loss.

Ridiculously, you have to go all the way back to 2009 to find the first notable profit. That was a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, whose £80m transfer to Real Madrid represented a nice rise on the £12.2m they paid for him.

But hold on, who’s this skulking out of Old Trafford in 2014? It’s Alexander Buttner! Signed from Vitesse Arnhem for £3.9m in 2012, sold to Dynamo Moscow for £4.4m - a disappointing two years later. Well praise the lord.

So there you have it. Buttner is officially United’s last transfer profit - their only one in the last seven years. And even then they only made £500,000 on him.

But if you’re talking a significant profit, it’s Ronaldo. All United’s new scouts need to do it find a few more like him.

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