Manchester United: Ferguson must sell - to buy...Profits down!

Sir Alex Ferguson will hand Wayne Rooney his Manchester United debut on Tuesday night knowing he has blown his entire 2005 transfer budget on the 27m England striker.

After accelerating the deal to bring Rooney to Old Trafford in the face of competition for the teenager's signature from Newcastle, Ferguson took his spending since January to 50m following the additional arrivals of Louis Saha, Gabriel Heinze, Alan Smith and Liam Miller.

And he has been told by chief executive David Gill that funds for new signings will only be given in extreme circumstances as the Red Devils board look to counteract an anticipated 14million loss in TV revenue next year.

Gill announced a record operating profit of 58.3million before player trading for the year ended July 31 but immediately warned of more austere times ahead.

While the overall Premier League contract that came into force this season is worth roughly the same as the previous one, incomes will be lower because more games are being covered.

Gill estimates the drop in income will amount to around 8million, while United are also facing a 6million shortfall in Champions League revenue because their third-placed finish in the Premiership last term means they are only entitled to 15% of the overall pot for English clubs, unlike the 45% share they had last season.

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Ironically, there was an Article in the Daily Express today claiming that they were having the biggest profits ever this season (around 170 million), and are also still making more profits from the franchise itself than any other Premier LEague club. See, it aint so bad lol

Yes they are having the biggest profits but when you subtract the spending on players and the loss in revenue from the champions league ect ect it isn't as much as they are saying...

I can't see them earning 170 million so far as the club officially annouced profits of only 58 million only 2 months ago and have since spent 27 million on Rooney, albiet in installments...And money on other players...Maybe that is predicted profits for the year before transfer fees and other stuff is taken out...

Originally posted by TRD
Yes they are having the biggest profits but when you subtract the spending on players and the loss in revenue from the champions league ect ect it isn't as much as they are saying...

I can't see them earning 170 million so far as the club officially annouced profits of only 58 million only 2 months ago and have since spent 27 million on Rooney, albiet in installments...And money on other players...Maybe that is predicted profits for the year before transfer fees and other stuff is taken out...

Your right, thats why I hate the Daily Express....lol.

But I don't think they'll be worrying now, they shouldn't get knocked out of the Champions league so early, and my bets are on them in the Final. I'm sure David Gill has got plenty of Faith in Fergie yet.

On the subject of Value and all that, Man U have had a mystery "prelimenary offer" for a major takeover, taking their shares up and leaving them valued at 690 odd million (over 1.2 billion dollars).

Also, I didn't realise that Man U had a commercial Tie In with New York Giants baseball team - anyone know how this works out?

Yeah Malcom Glazier own's a big chunk of Man United. I think he is the one who is looking to take it over so to speak.

The other two are racehorse owner's who i cant remember what their names are but they are the largest shareholders aswell and they have been trying to take over for years.