Another long, dull international break is winding down, and it won’t be long until Manchester United return to action on November 24th, when resume Premier League competition with a visit to Sheffield United. Then it won’t be long until festive period fixture congestion ensues.
So let’s take a look at what is currently making the MUFC related internet rounds on this Monday. For today’s MUFC transfer rumors, go here. Many of today’s lead stories are all about the Ed Woodward conference call with investors today.
A lot of news was made during this call, as the Executive Vice President of the club discussed their intentions of being active in the January transfer window.
“We have a clear vision in terms of football philosophy and recruitment,” Woodward said.
“The significant investments that we have made in recent years in areas such as transfers, recruitment infrastructure, analytics and our academy are already beginning to bear fruit.
“Our ultimate goal is to win trophies, playing fast, fluid, attacking football with a team that fuses graduates from our academy along with world-class acquisitions. We know this will not be achieved overnight, however we have made investments across the club that we believe have set us on the right path.”
Yes, success will not be achieved overnight, you certainly don’t have to remind United supporters about that! In terms of financials, the club announced first quarter revenue of £135.4 million, which is up £0.4m from last fiscal year.
United were able to achieve this despite missing out yet again on the added cash flow from UEFA Champions League broadcasts.
Elsewhere the club’s net debt rose by a total of $177.9 million, with expectations of bringing in $86.8 million less during the coming year. So it’s here where you can see he how being relegated to Europa League is really hurting the club. Old Trafford tried to compensate for this by bringing the wage bill down, which they accomplished to some degree.
The player salary bill fell 8.8 percent and it now currently stands at $90 million with the club having jettisoned big money busts like Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez to Inter Milan.
Speaking of Sanchez, he was named the worst United signing of the decade by ESPN FC.
ESPN did the five best and five worst for all of the big six clubs, with David de Gea being named the best for MUFC. There’s also an interactive online poll, and respondents seem to strongly agree on both choices. Anthony Martial, Juan Mata and Paul Pogba also made the best list while Angel Di Maria and Bebe were amongst the worst.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.