Football finance expert brilliantly breaks down Man Utd's debt problems in further blow for Erik ten Hag

By Kieran Maguire

Did you hear the story about the Scotsman, the two Irishman, the horse and the £900 million in bank interest charges? If so, you are probably a Manchester United fan and are already familiar with the row involving Sir Alex Ferguson over the ownership of Rock of Gibraltar which changed the course of the club's history.

In the early part of the century, Rock of Gibraltar was also part owned by Coolmore - the racing operation of JP Macmanus and John Magnier, who were the biggest shareholders in United. Sir Alex believed he was entitled to half of the stud fees from Rock of Gibraltar and threatened to sue the owners of the club he managed, eventually settling for an out of court settlement of £2.5 million.

Watching this from Florida was Malcolm Glazer - a relatively small shareholder in the club, who, sensing the unhappiness of the Irish racing owners, bought into Manchester United including the shares of McManus and Magnier.

This allowed Glazer to take control of United, but as he did not have the money himself to fund the share acquisition, he used the club itself to borrow and pay the existing shareholders. These borrowings came initially at very high interest rates.

Since then the debt of Manchester United has fluctuated, but the initial £600 million borrowed in 2005 has not decreased despite the club being traded on the New York Stock Exchange since 2012.

The borrowings of the club stood at £613 million at June 30, per the accounts, but the small print also showed that a further £140 million has been borrowed since then. The total interest charged on these loans since the Glazer takeover is £907 million, enough for eleven more Harry Maguires.

To add to the club's financial woes, the Glazer children - who inherited the club when their father died in 2014 - have presided over regular managerial changes (with sky-high redundancy fees) and a transfer strategy that is competitive financially (the club has spent £1.88 billion since Sir Alex retired) but is best described as 'meh' in terms of quality. Angel di Maria, Alexis Sanchez, Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Donny van de Beek are all evidence of that.

To make matters worse, the signings have been on credit - with Manchester United paying instalments over periods up to five years. This means that the club has been hampered in terms of being able to sign players in the summer 2023 window as it already owed £276 million to other clubs for outstanding instalments in bringing the likes of Jadon Sancho and Antony to Manchester.

When Sir Alex retired in 2013, United owed other clubs just £34 million on transfer instalments, but the Glazers' decision to use the Old Trafford credit card rather than put money into the club themselves has seen this figure soar.

Whatever happens in terms of the ownership of the club, any new regime is going to inherit a legacy of debt and IOU’s signed off by the Glazer siblings. If only Sir Alex had been more interested in greyhound racing or competitive tiddlywinks then the whole ownership saga seen under the Glazers may not have arisen.