On 26 November 2024 United published a press release in which the club predicted an Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) profit of £145m-£160m for the financial year ending 30 June 2025, after having the Premier League’s highest such profit measure the previous year.
The same club that was sending out messages to investors of high Ebitda profits had two months later sent a letter to the fan groups The 1958 and Fan Coalition 1958 that it had made pre-tax losses of more than £300m over the past three years and was in danger of breaching profitability and sustainability rules (PSR), which allow losses of £105m over three years, if action were not taken.
The job cuts were communicated as essential to reduce costs as critics of the Glazers pointed out correctly that the club had the highest number of staff of any Premier League club.
This, however, ignored that United also had the biggest stadium, a large communications team owing to having arguably the biggest brand and interest from media outlets, and their own TV channel, as well as the increased compliance costs of running a business registered in the Cayman Islands and traded on the New York stock exchange.
This was seized upon by many in the United fanbase, whose opinions of the majority shareholder owners, the Glazer family, oscillated between loathing or extreme loathing, as evidence that Offshore Jim meant business, even if “difficult decisions” had to be made.
