Liverpool have buy-back options on three players sold for a combined £60m, while Manchester United have the chance to re-sign four players.
These are the known active buy-back options Premier League clubs hold over sold players.
Which players do Aston Villa have a buy-back option on?
Aaron Ramsey
A significant knee injury has limited Ramsey to 18 appearances for Burnley since he made his £14m move in August 2023.
“It feels so amazing to be back on the pitch, it feels like a dream,” he said after making a six-minute cameo in the club’s penultimate game of their promotion season.
Unai Emery’s presence has likely contributed to Aston Villa adopting the more European approach of baking buy-back clauses into many a sale, especially those of young, homegrown players whose development could be accelerated by regular minutes elsewhere.
But they will not be cashing in their Ramsey receipt any time soon, although his long-awaited return might prompt them to keep tabs again.
Which players do Chelsea have a buy-back option on?
Diego Moreira
It seems fairly pointless for Chelsea to insert a buy-back clause into any sale they make to Strasbourg, a club with whom they share owners and have loaned or transferred ten players since summer 2023.
But when Diego Moreira was shipped across to France for £1.7m he arrived safe in the knowledge Chelsea at least had an eye on his future progress. Two goals and seven assists en route to Champions League qualification did not sufficiently move them.
Which players do Liverpool have a buy-back option on?
Bobby Clark
One of Jurgen Klopp’s 42 children at Liverpool, the son of Lee made waves at Anfield including playing 48 minutes as a substitute in the 2024 League Cup final, before unseating Trent Alexander-Arnold as the club’s youngest European goalscorer and guaranteeing himself a future mural in the process.
Liverpool were loathe to lose Clark but, as ever with transfer negotiations, ensured the situation was weighted ludicrously in their favour when the inevitable happened.
As well as a £10m fee which constituted one of the highest ever paid in Austrian league history, Liverpool got Salzburg to agree to a 17.5% sell-on clause and buy-back option.
It remained untouched through a season which featured one goal, two assists and a Pep Lijnders sacking in 25 appearances.
Ben Gannon Doak
Liverpool have always enjoyed chucking buy-back clauses into their player sales without it ever really seeming likely they would be triggered. But this summer feels different – at least they hope so.
Perhaps Doak will follow the same path as Rhian Brewster before him in struggling under the weight of expectation and injuries. He would not even be the first Liverpool forward whose rise stops and irreversible fall starts at Bournemouth; the tale of Jordon Ibe is a warning.
But Liverpool have been remarkably eager to let the world know how highly they rate a player given four starts and six sub appearances in three years at Anfield, with a decent Middlesbrough loan in between.
Bournemouth felt compelled to hand over £20m and £5m in add-ons after scanning that CV; Liverpool were never going to sanction a sale unless it outlined in writing an opportunity to bring him back.
Jarell Quansah
The buy-back clause has become a prerequisite to bring Liverpool to the negotiating table for their homegrown products – or at least those plucked from other academies at a young age.
Harvey Elliott has had such a premium built into his asking price this summer, with Liverpool willing to accept £40m if the future option was included and £50m if not.
It is unknown whether Leverkusen faced the same obstacle when they came calling for Quansah but the Germans seemed content to agree to whatever demands were laid out in front of them.
A £30m deal with £5m in add-ons gives Liverpool, at worst, a sizeable fee for a player with 58 senior career appearances, with the best-case scenario handing them control over a substantial centre-half asset if Quansah comes good with some Bundesliga seasoning.
Which players do Manchester City have a buy-back option on?
Gavin Bazunu
“All of them are fantastic players. Southampton bought really good players,” said Pep Guardiola.
“They could stay one to two years. They want Premier League, so after agreement with the clubs we have a buyback on all of them so just in case they explode we have a chance to get them back.”
Chelsea soon eliminated any temptation Manchester City might have had to take Romeo Lavia straight back but three Etihad academy graduates remained at Southampton after joining in summer 2022.
Bazunu has kept 16 clean sheets and conceded 117 goals in 80 games for Saints, spending some of this past season on loan to Standard Liege. It does not scream Manchester City.
Juan Larios
Nor does 153 minutes in three seasons on the south coast.
Sam Edozie
Or a loan at Anderlecht last season.
Jacob Wright
Four substitute appearances amounting to 61 appearances across the Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup prevented Wright from joining the Manchester City transfer cheat code list but it was still a feat to extract £2.3m from Championship side Norwich for the inexperienced midfielder.
Wright impressed enough on loan at Carrow Road to earn a permanent move which the Canaries might end up paying more for in add-ons.
Manchester City will be keeping tabs in case the 19-year-old shines and their buy-back or sell-on clauses come into action.
James McAtee
Perhaps burned by Cole Palmer – and certainly finding Nottingham Forest more amenable to such clauses than Chelsea would ever have been – Manchester City put the usual fine print into the £30m sale of James McAtee.
Pep Guardiola’s side have a sell-on and buy-back clause on a player the manager says “has the potential to be with Man City,” but who simply “wants more minutes and it’s fair enough”.
Which players do Manchester United have a buy-back option on?
Willy Kambwala
There are few areas in which Manchester United have definitely improved their operations over the last few years, but they are absolutely better at engineering more advantageous sales.
Kambwala played ten games for Erik ten Hag through an injury crisis in 2023/24 but remained low down the centre-half pecking order and had rejected a new contract offer so the teenager was sold to Villarreal for a deal worth £9.6m, with a healthy sell-on clause and three-year buy-back option.
After playing a decent number of games to help Villarreal finish fifth and secure Champions League qualification, Kambwala might end up receiving a couple of calls from some familiar Manchester-based numbers soon.
Facundo Pellistri
It was a similar story with Pellistri, for whom Panathinaikos could end up paying £6.8m to essentially borrow if he comes good in Greece.
Manchester United hold a mammoth 45% sell-on clause but also another buy-back option which lasts for three years. The forward scoring four goals in 36 appearances in his debut campaign for the Super League runners-up is unlikely to see it activated.
Hannibal Mejbri
Gary Neville would absolutely like to see Hannibal lecture the Manchester United squad on the importance of kicking Liverpool players but that violent cameo ended up being the highlight of the midfielder’s 13-game Old Trafford career.
It could be revisited down the line as the Red Devils this time negotiated a £9.4m fee and 50% sell-on clause to go with their now standard buy-back option. Manchester United could have a hell of a team one day if all these offloaded talents realise their potential simultaneously.
Mason Greenwood
As the Daily Telegraph reported in July 2024:
‘There is also a buy-back option in the agreement with Marseille. These are fairly routine nowadays where the sale of academy graduates or young talents are concerned but, given Greenwood’s history, the decision to include a buy-back clause could be perceived as somewhat contentious.
‘Nonetheless, Telegraph Sport understands there is no expectation or intention of Greenwood coming back in the future and that, if the clause does signify the door remains ajar for the player down the line, it is very much the slimmest of cracks. The prospect of it being activated is considered very low.’
A huge sell-on clause entitling Manchester United to 50% of any profit Marseille make on £26.7m signing Greenwood is far more relevant, especially if Liverpool act on their reported interest. Which they absolutely shouldn’t and won’t but still.
