What Manchester United takeover bidders should make of financial results

Manchester United's latest financial results have propelled the club forward into a potentially record-breaking year for revenues, but the figures aren't all good news ahead of a potential takeover this summer.

United have adjusted their revenue estimates to £630million to £640million for a full year after posting their third-quarter results and it was another indication of the strength of the business.

But despite seeing rises in commercial revenue and matchday revenue, the club still posted an operating loss of £4.7million for the three months to March 31, 2023.

That is significantly down from the loss of £21.8million for the same three months last year, but according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire, it is another sign that this is a business that doesn't make a profit at the moment.

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"I think these are a very solid set of results, it's going to result in record revenues, despite it being a non-Champions League year, which would suggest that 23/24 could be another significant step forward," said Maguire, who runs the Price of Football podcast and wrote a book with the same title.

"Having said that, they still lost money pre-tax, they talk about EBITDA, but that's ignoring the impact of buying football players. I added up Manchester United's results for the last 10 years put together and overall, the club has lost £6million in 10 years.

"Now, under those circumstances, who in their right mind would pay £6billion for such a business? This is why I think they're absolutely mad, because somebody's going to take a step back and say ‘hold on, we're buying this amazing business. But in order to be competitive, it needs to spend a lot of money’.

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