Manchester United are reportedly exploring the possibility of staging a midseason friendly in Saudi Arabia as the club navigates a difficult run of results and continued financial strain. According to The Athletic, the club is examining potential opponents but cannot formalise any arrangements until Premier League match dates are confirmed.<\/p>\n
The decision stems in part from the unusual calendar the club faces this term. United do not have European fixtures this season, and an early exit from the Carabao Cup following a second-round defeat to League Two Grimsby Town has left the squad with free midweeks through to December. A trip to the Middle East would offer warm-weather training amid dropping temperatures and carry significant commercial appeal.<\/p>\n
On the pitch, Ruben Amorim remains under pressure after a troubled 2024\u201325 campaign and a slow start to the new season. The Red Devils were beaten 3\u20131 by Brentford on Saturday and sit 14th in the Premier League table. Under the Portuguese manager United are yet to record back-to-back Premier League wins.<\/p>\n
Financial context is central to the planning. The club supposedly carry \u00a3750 million ($1.1 billion) in debt and recorded their sixth consecutive loss in the 2024\u201325 accounts. Missing out on Champions League qualification cost an estimated \u00a385 million ($115 million) after a defeat in the Europa League final to Tottenham Hotspur. The club also declined an All or Nothing Amazon documentary that \u201ccould\u2019ve netted an extra \u00a310 million ($13.64 million),\u201d a move Amorim insisted on.<\/p>\n
A midseason friendly in Saudi Arabia would be rare for a Premier League club but offers both sporting and commercial benefits. United are assessing the options while waiting for the fixture calendar to allow any such match to be scheduled. For now, planning remains exploratory rather than finalised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manchester United weighing Saudi midseason friendly as form dips and finances remain under pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,969],"tags":[1038,1041,1066],"class_list":["post-3461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-premier-league","tag-accounts-2024-25","tag-amorim-concerns","tag-carabao-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461","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=3461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}