Man United could save ‘£15m’ after BBC reveal – Stefan Borson
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has come under fire after making several controversial decisions since taking over the club’s footballing operations.
The INEOS chief purchased a 27.7 per cent stake in the Premier League side in February last year after agreeing a £1.25billion deal with the Glazers.
Ratcliffe has now increased his stake in Man United to 28.9 per cent after injecting £238million into the club.
The 72-year-old has faced intense scrutiny over the past few months following his attempts to slash costs at Old Trafford.
BBC Sport reported on 12 February Ratcliffe is considering making between 100 and 200 more redundancies after 250 members of staff were let go last year.
Former Man City financial adviser Stefan Borson exclusively told Football Insider Man United will not be able to make huge savings without reducing the wage bill of their first team.
United fans have expressed their anger towards the staff redundancies, hiked ticket prices and pay cuts for club ambassadors, including Sir Alex Ferguson.
Man United told to make first-team wage cuts
Borson revealed the Manchester giants could save up to £15million a year if they were to make further redundancies.
He told Football Insider: “I suspect that this is not going to make huge savings.
“It may well be that there are 100 people that they can trim from the workforce.
“Most businesses in the world could probably take the 10 per cent out in terms of headcount and it probably wouldn’t make a huge amount of difference to the productivity of the organisation.
“JPMorgan’s CEO was saying almost exactly that in a leaked call this week, so I don’t think it’s unique to United.
“But what is important in football is that if JPMorgan take out their 10 per cent worst performers, it’ll probably have quite an immaterial impact on the profit and loss of JPMorgan in terms of the cost saving.
“You take out 10 per cent of Manchester United’s workforce but don’t do anything about the first-team squad because you can’t, save for selling players which they are trying to do.
“But we know all the issues with that, particularly the fact that these players are contracted to earn massive amounts of money.
“But you take out 10 per cent of non-footballing staff in Manchester United, it’s going to have very little impact overall.
“You might save an absolute maximum of £10-15million a year. The wage bill historically has been over £300million, so it’s not moving the dial. It’s five per cent.”
Man United set for £27m hit after Premier League blow
United’s financial situation has been in the spotlight recently after they sent a letter to fan groups last month warning them the club are at risk of breaking the profit and sustainability rules (PSR), with top-flight sides only permitted to make £105million of losses over a rolling three-year period.
Their latest accounts for 2023-24 revealed they generated a club-record revenue of £661.8million despite recording a net loss of £113.2million, while their wage bill stood at £365million.
Performances on the pitch have failed to lighten the mood at Old Trafford lately, with Ruben Amorim’s side currently sitting 14th in the Premier League table.
Football Insider revealed on 6 February United are set for a £27million hit in prize money following their disappointing season.
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