Football finance expert explains why Man Utd will be able to spend big this summer - but dashes £250m hope

Manchester United should be able to compete with their Premier League rivals in the transfer market this summer and Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) are not expected to majorly impede spending.

That’s the view of sport finance expert Dan Plumley. The lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University spoke exclusively to ManchesterWorld about United’s finances ahead of what is likely to be a summer of major change on and off the field at Old Trafford.

With Sir Jim Ratcliffe now firmly in charge, the club are already starting to draw up ambitious transfer plans, with Jarrad Branthwaite, Amadou Onana and Michael Olise among the summer targets. But finances were so tight during the recent January window that Erik ten Hag couldn’t even bring in a striker on an emergency loan, while 17 players departed the club in one form or another.

According to Plumley, the same problems are unlikely to impact United ahead of the 2024/25 season. “Yeah, so I think they still can [compete with rivals] if they want to,” the academic told ManchesterWorld. “There's rumoured to be £245-£250m coming from the Jim Ratcliffe side of things to invest in the football performance side of the business.

“But we've also seen recently that that has wider aspirations for stadium redevelopment and the whole behind-the-scenes set-up. So that's not necessarily money that's going to go into the transfer market, it could do. There could be a proportion of that that United would look to spend. I guess they'll also be looking for one or two exits as well to balance that.

“So, there's obviously the situation with Jadon Sancho and one or two others that might then mean that there's a bit of movement out as well, so I don't think United are in a position where they can't spend, given the numbers that we can see. But I think a lot of that will also depend on what that money is ring-fence for and as I say, some of the wider things that Jim Ratcliffe is looking to do, particularly with the stadium in infrastructure.”

PSR regulations limited spending across the board in January, while the likes of Everton, Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United and Leicester City have been sanctioned in recent months due to overspending. So, with the rules being so stringently upheld, is it as simple as Ratcliffe investing millions to be spent on new signing?

“It's not as easy anymore as just doing that, because that money, if it goes into the transfer market, that does go against the bottom line,” explained Plumley. “So, while there are exemptions from PSR calculations around infrastructure spend and other exceptional items, investment in the transfer market, owners or investors pumping money in, that's where you’re pushing up against those regulations.

“So, it's not that they can't do that, but there is a limit to what you can do there, which is effectively against those regulations. And of course, on a three-year rolling calculation, you would have to look at where the club is in real time against those regulations.”

While a figure of £250m cannot be invested purely to be spent on transfers, Plumley said a fee of around £20-£30m may be realistic, on top of existing club transfer funds.

“I think that's a possibility. I think United are still a huge club financially and if you look again, we're only working on the numbers we can see from the outside looking in. So you can see the bottom-line losses, but there are estimates of the amount of money that they lost in revenue from the pandemic, which is still being accounted for in that two-year average.

“If those estimates are correct, it brings them in line with the PSR calculations. That's not even before we get into infrastructure spend and everything else.

“So, my feeling is that based on the numbers, we can see they've got no issues immediately with the regulations, but it then becomes an internal question of how much money do you realistically want to spend in the transfer market given those regulations and given everything else going on? But there's no doubt United could spend some money in the summer based on the numbers we can see.”