Angel Gomes has taught Manchester United a multi-million-pound lesson

Manchester United will feel they are pretty well protected in years to come. If Willy Kambwala goes on to star in La Liga and become a France international, then United have a sell-on clause and a buy-back clause that will give them options. The same is true if Hannibal or Facundo Pellistri suddenly go to another level for first-team exposure.

United's transfer deals for the age group that fall between academy players and being established in the first-team have improved markedly in the last three summers. They have started banking cash for those players not quite good enough to make it into Erik ten Hag's squad, but are too good to continue playing in Premier League 2.

This year, they have become more aggressive in adding clauses into those deals that offer the chance of more profit down the line. It is a common strategy for successful clubs, especially when their academy graduates are so sought after. Manchester City have become the masters at it and you sense United's new chief executive Omar Berrada has influenced the change in approach at Old Trafford.

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Berrada spoke about the way United structured these deals last week and he used Kambwala as an example. The centre-back is maybe the most prominent youngster to depart - aside from Mason Greenwood - having made a breakthrough last season.

"It is true that we have been more open to structuring the contracts in a way that can deliver value for us in the short-term, but also in the future, introducing higher sell-ons, more realistic contingents, we have done that with practically all of the players who have gone out, from the young ones to the more senior players," said Berrada.

"We have also tried to put in place certain policies to protect us in the future. So we have the ability to buy back a player. (Willy) Kambwala, if he does really well, then we have the ability to bring him back. And we have done that again with lots of other young players."

Sometimes it's not always possible to make these deals work. Winger Omari Forson, 20, turned down a new contract to move to Monza in Serie A.

Those examples should be a rarity now. United don't want talented youngsters reaching the final year of their contract and using that freedom to move abroad for free, enticed by the option of playing more regular football.

Watching those players thrive is particularly painful and while there was abundant pride in the United academy when Angel Gomes made his England debut in Dublin in September, there will be some frustration that a player they nurtured for 14 years is now forging a successful career without delivering any return to his boyhood club.

Gomes was affiliated with United from the age of six and grew up in Salford. He was a true academy star, winning the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award in 2016/17, but his progress to the first team stalled and he turned down a lucrative contract to move to Lille in France's Ligue 1. You can't blame Gomes for that and it has been the right move for his career. United should never have let it get that far.

When he became the first player born in the 21st century to play for United - and the club's youngest debutant since Duncan Edwards - on the final day of the 2016/17 season, Gomes looked set for a long career at Old Trafford. But he only played two minutes of an FA Cup fourth-round win at Yeovil the following season and continued to find minutes hard to come by.

There was no loan to aid his development, so he was stuck on a diet of under-21s football and the odd first-team moment. He played 25 minutes under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2018/19 and although he appeared in six senior matches the following season, his mind had been made up.

Solskjaer worked hard to try and convince him to stay during that pandemic-affected season. In the final weeks of Gomes' contract, he said: "Angel is a top, top kid who we have had at the club for so many years.

"We've offered him a deal, hopefully he takes it. If not, I wish him all the best. Hopefully, from what I understand, it's not too far away, so if not we wish him all the best."

In a period of turmoil, United didn't have a clear plan for one of their brightest academy talents and he sensed his career would be better served elsewhere. He moved on a free transfer to Lille, spent a year on loan at Boavista and is now a regular in Ligue 1, has made his Champions League debut and has now been handed his second start for England.

Gomes might never have quite made the grade at United, but he would have been an excellent squad player at the very least. Failing that, he should have been a youngster that the club could have made a fortune out of. Neither of those things happened.