Why players use Manchester United as leverage in contract negotiations

I was happily enjoying my Monday afternoon until I picked up the news that Real Madrid have announced a new 5-year contract extension with Sergio Ramos. The Spaniard was heavily linked with a move to Old Trafford all summer. It now appears to be the new tact when players are negotiating a deal. 

This is not the first time, Manchester United has been played and humiliated. Former club favorites, Cristiano Ronaldo and the likes of Fabregas and Dani Alves have used this great club as leverage at one point to obtain better deals from their clubs. The rate at which, these unfortunate events are happening is becoming more rampant.

One question, I and many other Manchester United fans will ask is 

Why should this happen only to Manchester United and not Chelsea or Barcelona??  

Several answers sprang to mind. I would discuss some of these in the accompanying paragraphs.

Manchester United are still in the rebuilding process desperately needing reinforcements to be able to contend with the best in England and in Europe. Take for the instance, the issue with Dani Alves, he knew for a fact that the club was looking for a good right-back, especially at a point when our options were Rafael (who was out of favor) and Valencia. The Brazilian defender played the whole transfer fiasco superbly as he had no intention of leaving Barcelona, however, on getting the  hint about United’s desperation of signing a world-class right back, the player used the Red Devils as a leverage in getting his new contract.

Secondly, our negotiators are not firm enough. Normally, when a player flirts with a club, the buying club demand that the player submits a transfer request or goes public with his intentions to leave. This could be seen when Real Madrid wanted Bale, Modric and Rodriguez, also could be seen when Barcelona wanted Suarez, Rakitic and co. But you rarely see this happening when United are involved in a transfer. What is worse is that the club don't come out strongly often to reject or deny numerous rumours that emanate everyday. Take for instance the issue of Gaitan, who we are linked with almost every single summer.

I just hope the club take measures to stop this incidents from being an annual occurrence. 

Thank you for reading.