Manchester United have spent a whopping £60m on severance packages for managers and associated staff members since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement.
A report from The Athletic outlines the extent of how badly the Red Devils have suffered financially due to poor decision-making.
David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick were all moved from their roles.
And by moving each of those managers with plenty of time remaining on their respective contracts, United ended up paying large sums to relieve them of their duties.
With Moyes (not to mention his staff) more than five years on his contract, his pay could have been even worse than the £4.9m the club ended up paying.
A clause related to Champions League qualification saved United a monumental payout, and the club scrapped it once that goal became mathematically impossible.
Louis van Gaal still had a year left at United, but was sacked for £8.4m soon after lifting the FA Cup.
José Mourinho was sacked just six months after signing a new deal with Man United and there was no qualifying clause in place when he was relieved of his duties at the end of 2018.
The result was a massive £19.6m severance pay for him and his staff.
It is unclear how much Solskjaer or Rangnick were paid individually, but the clubs’ accounts list the ‘exceptional items’, including managerial compensation, weighing in at £24.7m for the year ending June 30, 2022. .
The £60m spent on such items since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement puts United comfortably ahead of their six main rivals in money paid to terminate contracts.
Chelsea sit second on the list having spent £38.8m sacking their managers in the same time frame, with Antonio Conte and his army of staff amassing £26.6m. of that. Unsurprisingly, Manchester City figures are unknown.
With the cost of failure mounting to such a high figure for the Red Devils, the hierarchy at Old Trafford expect Erik ten Hag to be a case of ‘sixth time’s the charm’.
So far, the cost of the Glazers’ mismanagement since the end of Ferguson’s term continues to mount.
