United’s record £384m wage bill...to finish sixth!

THE staggering cost of Manchester united’s failure last season was laid bare yesterday when the club released their full-year financial results. united had a wage bill of £384.2million — the highest in Premier League history — but still finished sixth and dropped into the europa League. Cristiano Ronaldo’s £500,000-a-week deal helped to push the overall figure up by £61.6m from the previous year, breaking the record of £354.6m set by Manchester City. the decision to sack manager Ole Gunnar solskjaer and then scrap plans to keep interim boss Ralf Rangnick in a consultancy role proved costly, with the club paying out £24.7m in compensation. united have since backed new manager erik ten Hag in a bid to solve their problems, spending a club-record £220m this summer. Chief executive Richard Arnold said: ‘Clearly our on-pitch performance in finishing sixth last season fell short of our aims and expectations. in response, we have made important and necessary changes, including new leadership under erik ten Hag and the strengthening of the playing squad.’ Although united’s total revenue rose to £583.2m as the club continued to recover from the effects of the pandemic, they posted a net loss of £115m. united were forced to borrow £100m from their revolving credit facility to offset cash losses of £200m due to the Covid crisis. the weakness of the pound also meant the club paid £62.2m in interest on us borrowing, pushing the net debt up £95.4million to £514.9m. despite the losses, united paid record dividends of £33.6m to the Glazer family and other shareholders — due in part to one of the two annual payments from last year being deferred due to the pandemic. Football director John Murtough claimed that the summer business had put the club ahead of schedule but promised more signings. He said: ‘We will continue to support erik in ensuring he has players with the right quality to achieve success.’