By Wayne Veysey

11th Sep, 2023 | 11:21am

Revealed: Man United denied Axel Tuanzebe 'surprise' £62,000-a-week deal - sources

Man United denied Axel Tuanzebe a £20,000-a-week pay rise when they decided not to activate the option in his contract, sources have told Football Insider.

The 25-year-old joined Ipswich Town on a free transfer at the end of last week, agreeing a one-year deal with the option of a further year.

The move down a division to the Championship comes after Tuanzebe, who spent last season on loan at Stoke City, became a free agent on 1 July.

That ended his 17-year association with United, although it does reunite him with former United coach Kieran McKenna, who is the manager of Ipswich.

Like with many of their senior players, United had protected the value of Tuanzebe by including a 12-month option in his contract, which was aimed initially at avoiding him leaving on a summer free.

Intriguingly, were this to have been triggered, the defender’s salary would have automatically risen to £62,000-a-week, a huge rise of £20,000-a-week.

That would have come as a surprise to United fans, given that Tuanzebe had become a forgotten player at the club and had made just 37 first-team appearances since graduating from their youth set-up.

He failed to convince a series of United managers and fared little better during multiple loan moves.

Tuanzebe made just five appearances for Stoke in all competitions last season – spread across 330 minutes of action – after joining them at the end of the January window.

It has been a similar story for the versatile defender over the last few seasons.

In 2021-22, Tuanzebe had two spells on loan, at Aston Villa in the first half of the campaign and then a wretched spell at Napoli where he made only two appearances.

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