Manchester United are working through a £100m-plus bill on outstanding transfer fees.
The Sun says the Old Trafford club are only operating by the same rules as the rest of football’s big clubs.
And United insist the transfer debt will have no impact on their winter window business activity.
Financial figures released by the club showed United owed a staggering £258m on previous signings at the end of June.
That is because, like most of their rivals, the majority of transfers see payments staged by clubs over the length of the new contract signed by the player being sold.
It means that the full £89m fee for Paul Pogba to return to United from Juventus was not paid up front but will be split over the five years of his initial deal at the club.
In their latest accounts, for the first quarter of the new financial year, that transfer debt had been reduced to £129m.
