Erik ten Hag has said Manchester United will do “everything in our power” to sign a striker this month. On the most basic level, that the club will have saved about £15.5m in wages from cutting ties with Cristiano Ronaldo at the beginning of the World Cup suggests those funds will be freed up for reinvestment.
Yet the reality for United, for so long viewed as one of the sport’s two biggest financial behemoths, is that they are in a financial rut that will prohibit them from spending big, thus placing a potentially severe limitation on their chase for a top-four spot.
For all the positives of the Ten Hag era’s early months, United are precariously straddling the line Arsenal crossed in 2017 (coincidentally the last year United led the way when it comes to revenues) and are only now looking like recovering from.
