Ben Foster reveals what really happens when a player hands in a transfer request amid Man Utd standoff with five players
Ben Foster has given his own take on recent rumours about Manchester United and a flurry of reported transfer requests, sharing his theory on the situation.
United stars have been back in training ahead of their pre-season campaign, which includes a clash with Leeds United in Sweden and then further fixtures with Premier League opposition in the United States when they play West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton.
But FIVE stars have been banned from participating in full training, with Sky Sports reporting that Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Antony, Jadon Sancho, and Tyrell Malacia are being treated as outcasts.
It's claimed the list of stars are only allowed to report to Carrington after 5pm when Amorim and the rest of the squad have completed their training for the day.
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The same report, citing club sources, said that all the aforementioned players handed in transfer requests in a bid to force through departures this summer.
With the exception of Garnacho, who was dropped for the final game of the season and told to find a new club after criticising Amorim, all spent a chunk of last season away from Old Trafford.
But former goalkeeper Foster, who played 23 times for United, does not believe the reports and offered insight as to why he does not thinking handing in a transfer request would benefit a player's position.
"The news broke this week that five Man United players have handed in transfer requests," he said on his Cycling GK podcast.
"As soon as I saw that I thought, 'there's no way on this earth any of them have handed in a transfer request'.
"I promise you it hasn't happened. Do you know why? Because as soon as you handing the transfer request, the club then has the power to say, 'Right, you've handed in the transfer request, we don't have any obligation to pay you any remaining this or that - it's up to you to find a transfer and when that transfer happens you're the one that's going to have to push it'.
"It gets the club off the hook like you wouldn't believe. The players that we're talking about, Jadon Sancho, £300,000-a-week, Marcus Rashford, £350,000-a-week, Alejandro Garnacho, £150,000-a-week - an awful lot of money."
Foster continued: "What it does, is it foregoes that contract. If a player has three years left on his deal, let's take Marcus Rashford for example, the player is not wanted by [Ruben] Amorim and Manchester United.
"If he was to sign for, I don't know, Barcelona for £30 million, he will say, 'I don't want to go to Barcelona'. United will say they want him to go but he'll go, 'Yeah that's cool but I'm on £350,000-a-week'. That's £45 million over the next three years. He'll say, 'I'll go to Barcelona but you'll need to pay me half of that amount, I want half of that contract paying to me and then I'll sign for Barcelona'.
"But by handing in a transfer request he'll forego all of that. It hasn't happened, it's as simple as that."
United have made just the one summer signing so far, splashing out £62.5 million to sign Mateus Cunha from Wolves.
The Red Devils are also pushing to sign Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford but the two clubs are far apart in their valuation.
Topics: Ben Foster, Marcus Rashford, Ruben Amorim, Man Utd
Josh Lawless