Manchester United\u2019s search for stability has come at a steep price. Over the past 13 years, the club have repeatedly paid to replace managers, and the bill for hiring and dismissing them now stands at approximately $129 million.<\/p>\n
That figure covers eight permanent managers in the post-Ferguson era, with Michael Carrick the latest to be caught up in the club\u2019s expensive cycle of change. It does not include wages, only the money spent bringing coaches in and compensating them when their time ended.<\/p>\n
The numbers show how costly United\u2019s pursuit of the right man has become. David Moyes was dismissed for $6.5 million, Louis van Gaal for $11.2 million and Jos\u00e9 Mourinho for $26.2 million. Ralf Rangnick, appointed on a short-term managerial and long-term consultancy basis, left with $19.6 million after the 2021-22 campaign.<\/p>\n
United have also paid to recruit managers directly. Ole Gunnar Solskj\u00e6r cost $1.3 million to hire from Molde, Erik ten Hag arrived from Ajax for $2.1 million, and Ruben Amorim was the most expensive of the lot at $14.7 million from Sporting CP. Amorim later received $13.4 million when he was relieved of his duties in January 2026.<\/p>\n
Carrick\u2019s contract, signed in May, includes a break clause, meaning United will only pay the remainder of his salary for the rest of the 2026-27 season, a total of $6.7 million. That is the smallest firing cost since Moyes in 2014.<\/p>\n
The cumulative cost is striking. Solskj\u00e6r and Ten Hag together cost more than $30 million to hire and fire, while Mourinho\u2019s exit remains the most expensive single payout. United\u2019s total spend on this managerial turnover is even greater than the $116 million it took to bring Paul Pogba back in 2016.<\/p>\n
Attention has already turned to the next appointment, with USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino currently the leading candidate to succeed Carrick. Pochettino\u2019s contract extension with the USMNT includes a $10 million release clause, though United would also have to pay more to bring across his coaching staff. Unai Emery would be more expensive still, with reports suggesting Aston Villa could ask for close to $27 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United\u2019s managerial churn has cost $129 million, with more spending likely if the next appointment arrives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172],"tags":[1162,59],"class_list":["post-22432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}