Top-two wages.
Top-two finish.
Twice.
In 11 seasons ranked 1st or 2nd for Premier League wages, United finished in the top two on two occasions.
United have ranked first or second in Premier League wage expenditure in eleven of the last twelve seasons. Historically, clubs occupying that wage position have finished in the top two with near-regularity across the Premier League era. The sustained divergence visible from 2013 is structurally distinct from normal variance: it persists across five permanent managers and three ownership configurations. The shaded region above quantifies that gap, compounded season by season.
Methodology note. Wage rank is derived from Deloitte Football Money League annual reports, which publish total employee cost rankings for the top 20 European clubs. Where United do not appear in the published top-20 table for a given season, rank is estimated from club annual report figures cross-referenced against published PL wage estimates. League positions are from Premier League official records. All figures refer to the season year ending in the cited calendar year.