Put out April 18, 2024, at 7:00 a.m. BST
Manchester United should be able to fight with their Premier League rivals in the summer transfer market. The Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) shouldn’t make it too hard for them to spend a lot of money.
That’s what sports business expert Dan Plumley thinks. The lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University talked to ManchesterWorld about United’s funds in an exclusive interview. The summer at Old Trafford is likely to bring a lot of changes, both on and off the pitch.
Now that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is officially in charge, the club is already making big plans for transfers. They want to bring in players like Jarrad Branthwaite, Amadou Onana, and Michael Olise this summer. But during the recent January transfer window, money was so tight that Erik ten Hag couldn’t even get a striker on loan. At the same time, 17 players left the club in some way.
Plumley says that United probably won’t have the same issues before the 2024–25 season. The professor told ManchesterWorld, “Yeah, so I think they can still compete with rivals if they want to.” The Jim Ratcliffe side of the business is said to be putting £245 million to £250 million into the sports performance side of things.
“But we’ve also seen recently that that has bigger plans for redeveloping the stadium and setting up everything behind the scenes.” That doesn’t mean that money will always go into the transfer market, but it might. It’s possible that United would want to spend some of that money. I guess they’ll also be looking for one or two ways out to make things even.
It’s clear that there are problems with Jadon Sancho and a few others, which could lead to some movement outside as well. However, I don’t think United are in a position where they can’t spend, based on the numbers we have. Still, I believe a lot of that will rest on what that money is set aside for and, as I already said, some of the bigger things Jim Ratcliffe wants to do, especially when it comes to building up the stadium.
In January, PSR rules restricted spending across the board. In the past few months, teams like Everton, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, and Leicester City have been punished for spending too much. So, since the rules are being followed so strictly, is it as easy as Ratcliffe spending millions on someone new to sign?
Plumley said, “It’s not as simple as just doing that anymore because that money would go against the bottom line if it went into the transfer market.” There are exceptions to the PSR estimates for things like spending on infrastructure and other rare events. But when owners or buyers put money into the transfer market, that’s when the rules get tough.
“That doesn’t mean they can’t do that, but there are limits to what you can do there, which is against the rules.” Of course, you would have to look at where the club is right now in terms of those rules on a three-year moving chart.
Even though £250 million can’t just be spent on moves, Plumley said that a fee of around £20 to £30 million might be possible, on top of the club’s current trade funds.
“That’s something that could happen.” If you look again, we’re only using the numbers we can see from the outside. I still think United is a very strong financial club. You can see how much money they lost, but estimates are still being made of how much money they lost in sales because of the pandemic. This is taken into account in the two-year average.
“If those estimates are right, they match up with the PSR calculations.” That’s not even counting the money spent on infrastructure and other things.
“So, based on the numbers, I think we can see that they don’t have any immediate problems with the rules. But then it’s a question of how much money do you really want to spend on the transfer market with those rules and everything else going on?” Based on the numbers we see, United could definitely spend some cash this summer.
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