If Manchester United were an aeroplane, Angel di Maria would be standing over the door marked 'emergency exit', fiddling nervously with his parachute and waiting for someone to pat him on the shoulder and say "it's time, lad". By all accounts the Argentine is on his way to Paris Saint-Germain after one lacklustre season at Old Trafford, having failed to live up to the pressures of the hallowed number 7 shirt. Or indeed the pressure of wearing a shirt at all. Any shirt.That has led many to label the Argentina a flop and the club's decision to purchase him foolish. Which he is, because he was vaunted as a world-class player but did bugger all for most of last season; and which they are, because Di Maria cost United a British-record £59 million and is reportedly leaving for roughly £15m less.So United arguably look a bit stupid. They're by no means the first ones: every top English club has made huge transfer mistakes before and they will again. Ditto those in Spain, Germany, Italy, and everywhere else. It's the nature of the business.And who cares, right? It's just football, isn't it? No need to get out a calculator to prove that United actually made a £9.4m profit on Di Maria.Oh yes there bloody well is! Consider this, posted by a United fan on Twitter. It is conclusive proof —using the most robust and informed of mathematics — that Angel di Maria was a wise buy for United.It's very simple, really. Though United may have surrendered around £10m in Di Maria's transfer fee, they made a cool £28m by selling kits with the Argentine's name on the back. The maths are unshakable: 400,000 times £70 (the average price of a kit - THE AVERAGE) comes to £28m. And of course kit sales are pure profit. There are no production, shipping or sale costs. Manchester United shirts with 'Di Maria' printed on the back simply emerge from a well in Salford.Also, this does not include the sale of other merch, such as posters and head masks. Who knows how much more that adds on to United's tidy Di Maria profit? How many times have you walked down a British high street and seen a gang of teenagers — male and female— all wearing their Angel di Maria heads masks and chatting about the economy and crisps? That is Saturday.On a serious note, everybody: could we all please just chill out about football and maybe just enjoy it for what it is — a sporting contest — rather than turning it into a never-ending squabbling match where we defend the honour of these massive corporations that call themselves elite clubs? Cool.
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