Former Manchester United striker Teddy Sheringham has warned co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe of the fan backlash he will face if either Kobbie Mainoo or Alejandro Garnacho are sold.
Both players were linked with exits during the January transfer window and United rebuffed an offer from Napoli for Garnacho, who was also wanted by Chelsea.
United are mindful of the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules [PSR] and selling club-trained players counts as pure profit. Both Mainoo and Garnacho are considered as players who can become staples within United's long-term vision, with the pair both making sharp progress in a short space of time. Ratcliffe and Ineos are already under a wealth of pressure from United's supporters for a magnitude of reasons relating to matters on and off the pitch.
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And in the opinion of Sheringham, selling either Mainoo or Garnacho would see the Failsworth-born businessman's popularity score head even further south.
"Garnacho looks like he's upped his game a bit since the manager had a few words with him, so he has a good vibe about him," Sheringham told finaria.it. "Kobbie Mainoo, I think they still speak very highly of him.
"You wouldn't really want to be losing either of those two, would you? I think there's other players that you would sell beforehand. You can't be selling your best players, your better players. I wouldn't entertain that at all.
"That would just go down badly in the supporters' minds there. You don't want to be doing that at the moment. You can't think about the PSR gains and sell-off the family jewels from the academy.
"I don't know how popular Jim Ratcliffe is among the Manchester United fanbase. I think if the club sold either of those players, he wouldn't be winning many popularity contests anytime soon."
