MANCHESTER UNITED'S RECORD-BREAKING DEAL WITH ADIDAS-£750M

If you think the club Manchester United is out of the league of the big sharks’ then wait and read this, to know that Man U is a whale on its own.

Without Ferguson holding the reins of power at Old Trafford, questions were asked. Ferguson was the club’s most reliable asset, a guarantee of glory. Investors lost confidence. Some season ticket holders will have privately pondered whether the yearly investment was still worth the trouble.

The football was dire and the results were unacceptable. In six games against Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton, United’s aggregate score was 1-14. There would be no Champions League football for at least one year.

So how can it be, just two months after the curtain came down on United’s worst league finish in 24 years that the club were able to announce an extraordinary, record-breaking £750million decade-long kit deal with adidas?

The figures are truly remarkable. This agreement more than doubles the £31m that Real Madrid, the previous biggest recipient, are thought to receive a year from the German firm.

The £75m per year that United will receive from adidas alone is only narrowly less than the £76m turnover that Sunderland posted in 2012-13 season. In the same year, Aston Villa recorded £83.7m turnover. It offers some idea of the now obscene financial might of Manchester United.

This, of course, only takes into account United’s deal with adidas. United will also receive £51m annually from shirt sponsors Chevrolet for the next seven years as well as a £17m windfall per year from AON, who have purchased the rights to plaster their name across the club’s training kit, while they also sponsor the Carrington training ground. Only on Wednesday did United announce yet another sponsorship, this time with international food brand Nissin.

These three principal sponsorship deals will combine to provide United with an annual income in excess of £140m, dwarfing the turnover of 14 Premier League clubs.

Perversely, it would seem that United’s dismal dalliance with Moyes has, if anything, only amplified the intrigue and lure that surrounds this famous football club.

Last week, United launched ‘REUNITED’, essentially a glorified corporate event for the friendly match against Valencia in August that will mark Louis van Gaal’s first match at Old Trafford. This is emblematic of the brand that United are now trying to promote. A club clawing its way back to the peak of the mountain, ambitious and determined to return to the pinnacle of the sport in a brave, new era under Louis van Gaal.

It only underlines just how important the decision to part with Moyes had become to this football club. It was not taken lightly but it was incredibly necessary. A wave of optimism, boosted by the performance of Van Gaal at the World Cup and arrivals of Luke Shaw and Ander Herrera, is now sweeping through Old Trafford.

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