Twenty years of wages.
One direction.
The total wage bill rose in every managerial era from FY2006 to FY2024 — from £85m to £365m. The red bars climb without interruption. The dark line, tracking league position, does not.
The wage bill never fell under Ferguson. It never fell under Moyes, Van Gaal, or Mourinho. It peaked at £384m in FY2022, under Ole Gunnar Solskjær and then Ralf Rangnick, in a season United finished sixth. Only under INEOS did it decline -- to £313m in FY2025. The direction of the bars and the direction of the line are the chart. From FY2006 to FY2013, wages rose and league position held: United finished first or second in eight of those nine seasons. From FY2014 onwards, wages continued rising and league position collapsed: outside the top two in eleven of the twelve subsequent seasons, finishing 15th in FY2025. A wage bill 3.7 times larger than in 2006 -- and a league finish nineteen places worse.
Methodology note. Wage bill figures are total staff costs (wages, salaries, and social security contributions) drawn from Manchester United Form 20-F filings and Swiss Ramble analysis of Companies House filings. FY2006--FY2010 figures are from Companies House annual accounts and cross-referenced against Swiss Ramble contemporaneous analysis; FY2011--FY2015 from Swiss Ramble annual reports and 20-F filings; FY2016--FY2025 from the Glazernomics Wages entry evidence pack. League finishing positions are official Premier League records. All season labels refer to the fiscal year end (e.g. FY2014 = the 2013--14 season). Figures are nominal £m; no inflation adjustment applied.