Man United moves on to FA Cup quarters with comeback vs. West Ham
Watch the Game Highlights from Manchester United vs. West Ham United, 03/01/2023
United are also still without an airline partner, 12 months after cancelling their ?5m-a-year deal with Russian flag carrier Aeroflot following the invasion of Ukraine. While ?5m may seem a relatively insignificant figure for a club of United’s stature, when added to the ?17m drop in income from Chevrolet to TeamViewer, it creates a sizeable hole, especially when the Old Trafford wage bill rocketed to a record high of ?384m last year.
Declining commercial revenue, escalating player salaries and the lack of playing success, which in turn reduces broadcast revenues and prize money, have diminished United’s once formidable earning power.
By the 2025-26 season, new UEFA regulations will restrict clubs to spending 70% of total revenues on transfer fees, wages and agents’ fees. This season that figure is 100% of revenue, dropping a further 10% each year.
MARK OGDEN
Read all the latest news and reaction from ESPN FC senior writer Mark Ogden.
With United forecasting overall revenues of between ?590m and ?610m this season, it is already evident that there can be no repeat of last summer’s ?229m spending spree, especially with the club needing to reduce its balance of ?307m in outstanding transfer payments, too.
With sources telling ESPN that Ten Hag has made a new centre-forward the club’s priority this summer, United are likely to have to trade before they can contemplate moving for Tottenham’s Harry Kane, Napoli‘s Victor Osimhen or Juventus forward Dusan Vlahovic. But United won’t be able to take the Chelsea route of signing new players to unusually lengthy contracts of seven or eight years in order to spread the cost of their fees, with UEFA set to place a five-year limit for FFP calculations in response.
In many ways, United face the challenges that the majority of clubs must overcome. They will have to make every pound count and justify whatever they spend and, ultimately, that is good, sensible business.
But in modern football, when clubs at the top spend fortunes to stay ahead, being sensible and sustainable doesn’t seem like the quickest way to get there.
For Manchester United, though, they have no other option.