Manchester United were arguably the winners of the transfer window this summer, bringing in three players who will strengthen not only the squad, but manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's starting 11.
After Jadon Sancho completed his move from Borussia Dortmund for around £73 million - after being part of the England group that reached the European Championship's final - World Cup winning centre back Raphael Varane would follow week's later for in excess of £35m, joining from Real Madrid. The icing on the cake was to come as club announced that they had struck a deal with Juventus to bring club legend Cristiano Ronaldo back to Old Trafford in a deal where United could pay the Italian giants up to £20m for the 36-year-old Golden Boot winner, who will become the league's highest ever earner on around 510K per week.
With both Sancho and Varane reportedly earning around 350K a week that equates to over £60 million in wages for the three players.
To put this into context, it is more than both Leicester City and West Ham United's total annual wage bill, with both clubs qualifying for the Europa League. Newly promoted Brentford pay £12.8m per year which is five times less than United pay for their three marquee signings.
Advert
Now I know the club hasn't won a trophy since 2017 and this is what manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer craves so badly, as he conforms to the standards required in the institution that Manchester United is but it does raise questions. Should there be a wage cap? Do the 'bigger' clubs deserve to spend more because of commercial gain?
Regardless, it doesn't look like things are going to change. The thought of a level playing field is just that at the moment with PSG also being able to fork out huge wages for Messi, Ramos etc due to the fact they can make a good bulk of their annual outlay back in merchandise and shirt sales.
The moves made by United to bring the nostalgic element into play however, and we could be set to see them return to the peak of the Premier League once more as club's such as Arsenal and Liverpool who also have a big global fanbase, are hamstrung due to the effects of the pandemic, and have not been able to strengthen significantly compared to United and Chelsea.
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho, Manchester United