Manchester United reveals the cost they had to afford for the sacking of ex- manager, Jose Mourinho. Mourinho was dismissed in December and replaced by interim manager, Ole Gunnar Solksjaer; which costs the club £19.6m. The Portuguese coach, who had a contract till 2020 received a payoff of £15m; according to accounts released by the club on Thursday. The other £4.6m went to Mourinho’s back-room staff with goalkeeper coach, Emilio Alvarez being the only member not to leave the club.
The hefty amount is almost four times of value, United had to pay its predecessors, David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal, when they got the sack in 2014 and 2016 respectively. The figure was shown in United’s second quarter financial results for 2019, where they boasted record revenues of £208.6m with a whooping profit sum of £44m. The cub is predicting a sum between £615-630m revenue for the calendar 2019, with the income increasing from commercial, broadcasting and match day sectors.
Executive chairman, Ed Woodward said, “The appointment of Ole and Mike as caretaker manager and assistant manager, working with Kieran, Michael and Emilio, has had a positive impact throughout the club. We are delighted with the improvement in the team’s performances since December and we look forward to a strong finish to the 2018-19 season.”
Prior to Ole’s charge, Mourinho had signed a contract extension in January 2018; which would have seen him through to the 2019-20 season.
On boosting team strength, Woodward also suggested he hoped to tie up new contracts for Spanish trio, David De Gea, Ander Herrera and Juan Mata after sealing the services of Ashley Young, Luke Shaw, Phil Jones, Anthony Martial, Scott Mctominay, and Chris Smalling. Woodward also declared that a solution to the question of a permanent manager would only be resolved at the end of the season. He has full support for the present manager and will continue to support his work till the end of the season.
Solksjaer took over reins on the Christmas week and since went on to win 10 out of 12 matches, losing to Paris Saint Germain in the Round of 16 round. The Norwegian is still in the dark about his long-term future as United seek a long-term successor. The likes of Mauricio Pochettino and Zindedine Zidane have surfaced up but Solskjaer’s impressive performance has selected him to be one of the prime candidates of the job in the summer as well.
Meanwhile, Club managing director,, Richard Arnold declared, United will play 5 matches in the United States this summer, 3 out of which will be for The International Champions Cup. “Possibly, by the time we get to the summer we will be in a much stronger position in terms of squad strength and value,” Woodward signed off.
Well, it was always going to be a rough deal to get rid of the Portuguese manager, though the result hasn’t been too bad for the Red Devils. Bringing in Solskjaer has been one of the best decisions that they could have possibly made. Hopefully, they continue to progress in the right direction now.
