Getting sacked by Manchester United can be a lucrative business. For a select few, anyway. Not for the 250 staff who were laid off by Sir Jim Ratcliffe last year or, in all probability, for those fearing for their jobs now. United insist another redundancy program is merely one of the options being considered as a club that has invariably been loss-making since Covid seeks to cut costs and break even.
But if the financial results of a club that still – with a projected income of up to £670m for the current year – can be a money-making machine often make for grim reading, there tends to be a telling detail in the small print. “Exceptional items” tends to cover pay-offs. As United announced a loss of £27.7m for the second quarter of the financial year, and the last three months of 2024, exceptional items came to £14.5m; more than half of that loss, as even those with a rudimentary grasp of maths may work out.
