By Paul Sorene
Were Manchester United right to get rid of David Moyes as manager after a mere 10 months in charge? It was hasty – but then, the average tenure of all current Premier League managers is 1.57 years. Life is brief at the top.
The Daily Mirror has statistics to prove that under Louis van Gaal, Man United are a tougher prospect.
Was Moyes hindered by taking over the champions of England?
The facts show that United are on the up once more.
But at what cost? Have they spent too much on chasing success? The Times has more figures. As a percentage of each Premier League club’s turnover, United spend least of all on players’ wages…
The BBC note that Chelsea have the best point-to-wages ratio. Jose Mourinho is getting more return from the club’s investment in players than Van Gaal is.
But what about debt?
The Daily Mail says Chelsea are a whopping £958million in debt; Manchester United are £342million in debt; and – get this – Manchester City apparently have a debt of just £67million.
In May 2014, the Telegraph noted that “over £680million has gone towards interest fees, bank charges and debt repayment” to finance the debt since the Glazer family took over the club.
Imagine the team that could have bought…?
PS: Did the Glazers takle Manchester United. Mick Hume wonders if it was better “when ‘our club’ was owned by big shareholders and run by the plc board, who never noticeably allowed our passions to get in the way of their profits? Or… in the Busby era, when ‘our club’ was the private possession of Louis Edwards, a tight-fisted butcher famed for selling Manchester schools meat that made Turkey Twizzlers look like filet mignon.”