I was thinking about this and I could see it working in some ways. Ba seems to like dropping deep.
Anyway, can't see Munited selling a player to a prem club that is likely to harm them in the future. God knows Obertan, Brown, O'Shea, Simpson etc aren't going to.
After Obertan's failure so far, I never want us to sign a player of Man Utd again which they let go easily. Last decent player we got off them (excluding Andy Cole deal) was Liam O'brien in 1988.
Aye, as has been said countless times, Fergie is no fool. I can't actually think of any players that have left Man United and gone on to do particularly well in the Premier League (although I expect people to correct me here). Players like Pique, Ronaldo, Van Nistelrooy have all gone abroad.
Tevez is an obvious recent exception but Man United didn't have him under contract so doesn't really count.