Manchester United have borrowed another £90m since the end of June. The figure came out in a detailed filing to the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, a day after the club published its 2025-26 accounts, and it takes the total debt to £1.15bn. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been cutting costs at Old Trafford since he bought into the club in 2024. The number has still gone up.
The borrowing came in three drawdowns from the revolving credit facility — on 29 July, 31 July and 28 August — adding up to £120m. United then repaid £30m on 21 September, which is where the net £90m comes from. There is £200m still outstanding on that facility.
Where the £1.15bn sits
Three pieces make up the total. The historic debt, the one that has been attached to the club since the Glazer takeover, now stands at £578m. The credit facility accounts for £200m. And £375m is money United still owe other clubs for players they have already signed.
That last figure is at least moving in the right direction. In the 2024-25 accounts it was £447m, so it has come down by £72m. Of what remains, £104.8m falls due in one to two years and £51.9m in two to five, with the remainder payable inside the next twelve months. The club's line on its most recent signings is that the payments "are due within the next five years", which is the sort of sentence that tells you the instalment structures are long.
A £38m gap nobody has explained
The accounts confirm United spent £191.7m on players over the summer. They signed three: Andrey Santos from Chelsea on 13 July, Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa the next day, and Carlos Baleba from Brighton on 25 August. Add up the fees United themselves announced at the time and you get £153m.
That leaves about £38m unaccounted for in the public numbers. It could be add-ons, agent fees, levies, or instalments on older deals landing in this window — the filing does not say, and the club has been approached for comment. Until someone at Old Trafford explains it, it stays a gap between what was announced and what was spent.
The thing about cost-cutting
Ratcliffe has pushed through major cost-cutting since 2024, and BBC Sport's reading of the accounts is blunt about what it has achieved on this particular measure: the debt is still above a billion pounds. That is not a contradiction so much as a matter of scale. Savings made on running the club do not move a balance sheet very far when the same club is financing nine figures of transfer business through credit and instalments at the same time.
Financial facts: Manchester United total debt £1.15bn — £578m historic debt, £200m outstanding on the revolving credit facility, £375m in outstanding transfer fees (down from £447m a year earlier). Three drawdowns totalling £120m on 29 and 31 July and 28 August; £30m repaid 21 September. Summer player spend £191.7m against £153m in announced fees for Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba. Source: BBC Sport (Simon Stone), from United's NYSE filing.
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