Sir Jim Ratcliffe identifies next two Man Utd stars to sell after Rashford

Sir Jim Ratcliffe already knows the next two players he would like to leave Manchester United this month once Marcus Rashford departs the club.

The Red Devils forward revealed his desire for a new challenge last month, with the club happy to facilitate his sale. That has proven difficult thus far, with Rashford's £325,000-per-week salary at United appearing off-putting to a number of clubs.

One avenue out of Old Trafford could lead to the San Siro. AC Milan have emerged as the likely possibility and want to take him on loan initially but are unwilling to even pay half of his wages.

Nevertheless, Milan are attempting to pave way for a move and reports in Italyclaim that forward Noah Okafor is flying to Germany on Friday to sign for RB Leipzig. His exit will free up space in the squad and on the wage bill, and Rashford's brother and representative Dane is said to have been in Italy this week working on the deal.

Rashford's exit is not the only one that United are working on, however. Ratcliffe also has the sales of Brazilian duo Casemiro and Antony on his mind.

The trios' exit have been deemed a priority for the club with Casemiro earning £350,000-a-week and Antony £200,000-a-week, while Rashford would offer an ability to gain pure profit in terms of profit and sustainability rules. Ratcliffe and his team want to knock around £1million off of United’s weekly wage bill, to help them comply with PSR.

The entire United squad are said to be available for sale, including the likes of Kobbie Mainoo. New boss Ruben Amorim wants to bring in his own players to the club after arriving in November and it has been accepted that squad management will be key if they hope to overhaul the team.

“When the window is open, we can try to do something and we will try to do something," Amorim has noted. "But I think, in the next weeks, we are going to have more time to train and we can improve, that’s the only way.

"We had a lot of games without training, now we will have more space to grow. You can see that the context is worse in this moment, as we had a lot of losses, so we have to manage everything."