Manchester United have released their latest quarterly financial report – and the numbers make good reading for Sir Jim Ratcliffe in his quest to restore the Red Devils to their perch.
A topsy-turvy season ended on a high last weekend as Brighton were swatted aside by Michael Carrick’s men in the kind of imperial display which, under Ruben Amorim, was sorely lacking.
It meant they ended the season on 71 points and in 3rd place, a position which will yield about £190m in prize money, as well as central distributions from the Premier League. That is a huge improvement on 2024-25, when United trousered £136m for finishing in 15th.
The absence of European football of any description in 2025-26 has favoured United on the pitch this season, but the concerns were always going to be about what the failures of the previous season would do to the balance sheet.
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However, Manchester United have been remarkably resilient.
Unlike the rest of the Premier League, the club is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is therefore obliged to file accounts four times a year, meaning United fans get the luxury of seeing how their club is performing in near real-time.
Today, they released their third-quarter figures, covering the nine months up to 31 March 2026.
Operating profit for the financial year so far was £37.7m, up from a £3.2m loss over the same period last year. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation), a financial metric often used as a proxy for cash flow performance, was £187.5m, up from £145.3m in 2025.
Both of those figures – which encompass Amorim’s pay-off of up to £16.7m – can be largely chalked up to Ratcliffe’s brutal reduction in headcount behind the scenes, as well as lower costs from staging far fewer matches at Old Trafford because of no European football and poor cup performances.
But it is the revenue figure which is most noteworthy.
United are now projecting turnover of £655-665m for the full season. At the higher end of the spectrum, that would be just short of the club’s £667m all-time record.
And remember, this is for a season in which United had no European football, penalties from sponsors and low stadium usage.
For context, £665m will be up to £100m higher than Tottenham and Chelsea and potentially even surpass Manchester City’s figures. Next season, when you add in a minimum of £100m in Champions League income (matchday and prize money), United will be hoping for close to £770m, which – as it happens – is the figure Arsenal are projecting this season and a new Premier League record.
🔴⚪️⚫️Sum up the 2025/26 season for Manchester United…
A fourth highest points tally since Sir Alex Ferguson retired!⚡️
If United have a decent run in the Champions League and the cup competitions, they have every chance of besting that high watermark.
With sustained success and a new stadium, their next target will be reining in Real Madrid, whose revenue has hit the £1bn mark.
Yes, revenue is not everything. United need to get on top of their expenses, debts and how they actually use the cash they generate in order to be a true financial superpower. But the third-quarter figures for a season which was slated to be one of the club’s worst ever are monumentally encouraging.
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