Man Utd spent £19.6m on sacking Jose Mourinho and backroom staff as financial results released
JOSE MOURINHO cost Manchester United £19.6million to sack, the club has confirmed.
The former Old Trafford boss departed in December after losing 3-1 to Liverpool, while financial figures have revealed that he and his backroom staff cost just under £20m to lay off.
And after releasing their results for the last two quarters, the club are expecting revenue of between £615m and £630m for the season, up from £590m last term.
United’s latest figures for the fourth quarter of 2018 included the compensation payment to Mourinho and his backroom staff, while Michael Carrick stayed on.
In a short line in the financial bulletin, United said: “Exceptional items for the quarter were £19.6 million, relating to compensation to the former manager and certain members of the coaching staff for loss of office.
“Exceptional items for the prior year quarter were £nil.”
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It is the first official confirmation of the financial hit United took when they sacked the £346,000-a-week Portuguese in December.
Since then United won 11 of their first 12 games under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, before being handing a Champions League lesson by PSG on Tuesday.
And that change in outlook was recognised by United executive vice chairman Ed Woodward.
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Woodward said: "The appointment of Ole and Mike (Phelan) as caretaker manager and assistant manager, working with Kieran (McKenna), Michael (Carrick) and Emilio (Alvarez - United’s goalkeeping coach) , 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 18/19 season.";
The size of the Mourinho pay-out represents the latest eye-watering sum paid to sack the Portuguese.
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Mourinho received £18m when he first left Chelsea in 2007, £17m after his departure from Real Madrid in 2013 and a further £12.5m following his second Chelsea exit in 2015.
But despite that huge bill — United also had to recruit Solskjaer in an agreement with Norwegian club Molde — the Old Trafford outfit were able to report record positive numbers in their balance sheet.
United had record quarterly revenues of £208.6m, helped by increased Champions League revenue after qualifying as Premier League runners-up, which saw them take a 30 per cent share of the English “market pool”.
The statement also boasted that new contracts have been agreed with Anthony Martial, Ashley Young, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Scott McTominay.
Wages for the quarter were £77.9m, up £8.2m, which the club said was “primarily due to investment in the first team playing squad”.
United expect their annual revenues for 2018-19 to be between £615m and £630m.
The 2017-18 figure was £590m.