Man Utd posted record revenues for the 2025/26 season and are already expecting to better those figures this term, but issues still remain.
In some ways, the financial picture at Manchester United for the 2025/26 season is a testament to the club’s resilience and ability to make money, even in a year when almost nothing is happening.
United played just 40 games in all competitions last season and had no European football at all, but still managed to post record revenues of £677.6million. Those figures should be smashed this season, with the Champions League back at Old Trafford.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said it was evidence of the durability of “brand United” in delivering a set of results, but the positive headline figure doesn’t tell the full story.
While United’s ability to generate cash was strong again and will only rise with European football and a new training kit sponsor, the level of debt shot up, and an interest repayment of £70million brought up a milestone that will only reinforce the view of many supporters that success while the Glazers remain in place will be difficult to achieve.
“The finance costs, that’s an emotional one,” said Maguire, on the Price of Football podcast. “There’s almost £70million in interest costs. United were stung by the exchange rate movement issue, but over the course of the Glazer ownership, we’ve now got total interest costs in excess of £1billion.
“That’s £1billion that could have gone into sports science, it could have gone into the transfer budget, it could have gone into better facilities for fans.
“And this is where United are losing out to the likes of Spurs, because if you go to Spurs, you arrive an hour before the kick-off, you can pick up a pint in 30 seconds, they’ve got a far better range of food, so people go for the experience. United, you go to the football and that’s it, and you get out as quickly as you can.
“The level of debt has gone up. They’ve admitted that. We don’t know what the club’s plans are. I know they’ve rescheduled the debt, but at higher interest rates. So that’s going to be a further handbrake on Manchester United.
“And it does mean that there is extra pressure there on the footballing side of the club in terms of delivering results.”
United’s gross debt now sits at around £689million and it has gone up in these latest results after a loan was refinanced in the summer, partly to buy land for a new 100,000-seater Old Trafford.
While that new stadium could be a significant long-term revenue generator, in the immediate future, it is likely to complicate the club’s financial picture.
“The club is never going to generate enough cash to be able to repay the debt, unless they produce dozens and dozens of young football players in the same way that Chelsea do and, to a certain extent, City do, through their academy,” said Maguire.
“They’re not going to make it from Old Trafford itself. And of course, the debt is going to go higher and higher with the new stadium.
“Once approval is given, that’s when you get the worst scenario. You’re borrowing money to pay for the construction, so you’ve got those interest costs, and you’re not getting the benefit of having the bigger stadium. So there’s no positive when it comes to revenues and you’ve got the negatives when it comes to costs.”
Maguire expects a “big acceleration” this season, with the extra money from Europe and new commercial deals, while ticket prices continue to rise, which is partly behind better-than-expected matchday income for 2025/26.
But while the latest results are theoretically strong, questions remain about the club’s long-term direction and its ability to achieve targets such as Premier League success by the end of next season.
“These results, in my view, are as good as can be expected for a Manchester United that was not in the Champions League and not participating in Europe,” said Maguire.
“But the improvement on-field performance, which you’ve got to give Michael Carrick a lot of credit for, it is papering over some of the cracks elsewhere at the club, which does appear to not really have an identity in the boardroom and doesn’t appear to have a strategy and a philosophy, apart from ‘this is the INEOS way’, which worked well in petrochemicals, so therefore it’s bound to work in football.”
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