Manchester United spent a large sum of money on the managerial position at Old Trafford.
Since Alex Ferguson's retirement, Manchester United has spent a fortune on successive managers who have never made ends meet. Mauricio Pochettino will be the third manager to lead the team in 2026.
Mauricio Pochettino is the latest name on the list of managers who, seeing the chaos at Old Trafford, think: "I can fix this mess."
Should he fail, he will still receive a generous compensation package, as was the case with his predecessors. The Argentine manager's hiring alone cost Manchester United €8 million in compensation to the United States Soccer Federation, not including the additional costs of bringing his assistants to Manchester.
Michael Carrick and his assistants will also receive compensation. The estimated cost is around €6 million, bringing Manchester United's total expenditure on hiring, and especially firing, managers over the last 13 years to over €120 million.
This figure worried Sir Jim Ratcliffe. He had bought shares in Manchester United with the aim of solving the club's personnel problems, while his cost-cutting policies had led to the loss of over 322 jobs.
A whole fortune as compensation.
Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down voluntarily in 2013, but some of his assistants still had contracts. They were let go when David Moyes decided to take his staff with him.
Manchester United lost nearly €3 million by terminating those contracts and spent another €6 million when they fired the Scottish manager just a few months later. Two years later, the separation from Louis van Gaal cost the club nearly €10 million in compensation.
Two years later, Manchester United broke their own record. José Mourinho and his assistants received a total of €23 million upon their dismissal. It was the largest severance pay the club had ever paid in the last 13 years.
In 2021, it was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's turn to lose his job, and Manchester United spent over €10 million to let him go. A year later, the dismissal of Ralf Rangnick and other changes to the coaching staff cost the club over €16 million.
The list goes on. In 2024, Manchester United believed Dan Ashworth, then Newcastle's sporting director, was the right person to manage the technical side of things at Old Trafford.
They spent €3.5 million to sign him, then nearly another €5 million to fire him less than five months later. Ruben Amorim's transfer, that same year, followed a similar pattern. Manchester United paid Sporting nearly €13 million to terminate his contract. More than two years later, the club had to spend over €9.5 million to fire him.
This happened in January of this year. This week, Manchester United again lost around €6 million by terminating Carrick's contract early.
Adding the more than €8.5 million stipulated in Pochettino's contract with the United States Soccer Federation, the club spent nearly €15 million in a single week to fire a manager and appoint a successor.
Two coaching changes in 2026 would cost nearly €24.5 million. The total cost since Alex Ferguson left the team in 2013 has exceeded €120 million.
Manchester United's expenditure on hiring and firing managers:
| Year | Expense | Amount (millions of euros) |
| 2013 | Compensation for Alex Ferguson 's coaching staff upon David Moyes' arrival. | 2.8 |
| 2014 | Sack David Moyes and his assistants. | 5.76 |
| 2016 | Fire Louis van Gaal and his assistants. | 9.87 |
| 2018 | Fire José Mourinho and his assistants . | 23 |
| 2021 | Fire Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his assistants. | 10.69 |
| 2022 | Ralf Rangnick and his assistants are dismissed and the professional team is restructured. | 17.27 |
| 2024 | Fire Erik ten Hag and his assistants. | 12.22 |
| 2024 | Compensation offered to Newcastle for the salary of Dan Ashworth. | 3.53 |
| 2024 | Sporting Club to receive compensation for Ruben Amorim 's salary | 12.92 |
| 2024 | Fire Dan Ashworth. | 4.82 |
| 2026 | Fire Ruben Amorim and his assistants. | 9.64 |
| 2026 | Fire Michael Carrick and his assistants. | 5.88 |
| 2026 | Compensation paid to the United States Soccer Federation for the appointment of Mauricio Pochettino. | 8.70 |