Manchester United’s worrying debt continues to grow as they borrowed £200 million to fund last summer’s transfer window.
United announced their first quarter financial results yesterday, revealing total revenue up to September 30 was £143.1 million.
The club claimed it made a meagre profit of £1.3 million, as income decreased due to lack of Champions League football and a reduced pre-season tour schedule in the summer.
Debt is sadly no new issue for United to contend with as the Glazer family saddled the club with it when they bought the team in 2005 and it has grown ever since.
The Times report that this problem is only increasing and in spite of new owners Ineos’ desire to reduce the debt, it grew substantially in the summer.
“Manchester United borrowed £200 million to fund their summer transfer expenditure, the club’s latest accounts have revealed.”
“United’s accounts, which detail the club’s spending from the end of June to the end of September, showed that they used £200 million from a revolving credit facility that they have with a bank.”
“This time last year they had used £32 million of the £300 million facility (in effect an overdraft) but the latest figures showed the club had used £232 million of the funds available to them.”
United’s overall debt now stands at £714 million and while the wage bill has been decreased, it is unclear how the club will aim to improve without getting deeper and deeper into debt.
Player sales is certainly an option and it raised almost £100 million last summer but it is unclear United will be able to recoup that amount of money as a regular feature of future windows.
With new manager Ruben Amorim tasked with rebuilding the squad in his image to return the club to the glory days, fans will be worried by how little funds United seems to have to pay for its own transfer deals.
Fans largely accept it is tough to spend money in January, especially under strict financial fair play rules, but they will eagerly anticipate Ineos providing strong backing to Amorim in the summer as the club have been linked to expensive signings such as Viktor Gyokeres and Geovany Quenda.
In addition, fans will also be concerned with what the growing debt will imply for any stadium rebuild as the club plans to build an exciting 100,000 seater brand new arena to replace the outdated Old Trafford.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
