If he truly isn’t arsed over the money then he’d agree to a mutual termination. That would be a fairly amicable ending all things considered.
I wouldn’t want this to drag out more than it has but at the same time, I’d avoid paying him off as it sets a dangerous precedent any player that’s disgruntled could pull this off and get a payday
'Mutual' is a two-way street mate ..... You
could have done that in the summer and saved yourself the inevitable aggro thats culminated in the present embarrassment. And in so doing letting one of your greatest ever players leave with his ego intact and somewhat come out of it unscathed as a club. But instead they hung on to the bollocks
'find your own club' line. All safe in the knowledge that no club was going to take on his salary and fee, knowing he brings in the one thing the owners (who he's rightly pulled apart with his damning but sorely needed dissection of the shitshow he came back to at Utd. It's just the personal, petty, self-centred attacks on teammates and coaches, down to his own failings at this stage of his career, that make him what he is. A narcissistic shithouse) crave and why they ridiculously paid a 35-year-old all they did to start with. Again. For the return they make off him commercially.
They may well now end up with no option to do that and cut ties after this mad, self-destructing road he's gone down. But unless I've missed something mate (which is entirely possible as i'm just viewing this from afar for the comedic value Utd have brought upon themselves. As inherently in the wrong as the egotistical ***** is right now), mutual termination isn't currently on the table.
You've backed yourselves into a corner by trying to usurp City on a player you should never have touched in a million years given how toxic the club was to start with before you introduced his ego into the mix and gave him carte blanche to rule the roost. And letting it roll into another season, by suddenly taking that away from the overgrown child, has just exasperated that and here you now are.
Not sure how this ends but it needs to end quickly for everyone's sake before things resume after the disgrace in the desert.