Manchester United can spend £100million in the January transfer window without getting into financial difficulty, according to a football finance expert. With United pushing for Champions League qualification this season, a lot has been said about their need to bolster their ranks in the transfer market, which remains open until early February.
Head coach Ruben Amorim has already made it clear the club won't bring in players unless there is 'common ground' with director of football Jason Wilcox about which players can improve the squad, admitting that the pair don't always agree when it comes to new signings.
United already appear to have missed out on highly-rated winger Antoine Semenyo, who is set to join rivals Manchester City from Bournemouth. For the most part, the other players linked with the Old Trafford club have been midfielders, including the likes of Carlos Baleba, Elliot Anderson and Conor Gallagher.
Whether United are active in January will also be influenced by their financial situation. There has been plenty of talk about how much they are actually able to spend on new additions, given owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe's status as one of Britain's richest men with an estimated net worth of £12billion.
However, Ratcliffe has painted the picture of a financial crisis at United since acquiring a minority stake in the club in February 2024, worsened by the absence of European football this season. During Ratcliffe's short reign, United have axed hundreds of club employees and increased ticket prices in a bid to maintain the team's competitiveness on the field by bankrolling significant spending on forwards last summer.
But United also recorded the highest EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) profit of any Premier League club, along with the second highest revenues, in 2023-24.
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire insists they do not require any January sales to finance further transfers, saying they are “fine as they are” financially. He believes offloading players such as Kobbie Mainoo would only provide additional funds to decrease their overdraft debt, reported to stand at around £748million, while their transfer budget of around £100m this month would remain the same.
Maguire said: “I think the broader issue is they've not got cup money coming this year, they've not got European money. Old Trafford, you're looking to make probably seven or eight million per match, because it's very noticeable that since Ineos took over, the prices have gone up substantially.
“So they're squeezing the fans, and I think that's why the fans are probably a bit more demanding now than they were originally when Ineos came in, because they are being milked in order to provide the budget.
“Again, from an SCR point of view, which is the new rules which are kicking in, they're spending around half their revenue on wages. So they've got huge capacity.
“It's then a case of, can they spend the money? Well, yes, they've got a lot of debt but they're still well within their overdraft limit. What Manchester United tend to do is to buy players on credit. So they owe £466m in outstanding transfer fees for players that they've signed in the past.