Although Forbes estimates Manchester United's worth at $3.17 billion, making it the world's second-most valuable sports franchise behind Real Madrid, its debt load left the team cautious during the transfer period in recent years. Between 2001 and 2008 Man U spent more than $29 million on transfer fees for a single player six times. In the last five years it did that just once — for Van Persie, a deal that went forward only after Glazer gave his approval — while allowing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo to leave for better-paying deals elsewhere."We've always operated like this," Gill said. "The key cost at any football club is the players, and we've had a target of spending no more than 50% of revenues on wages."
That philosophy has been the exception around the Premier League in recent years, but it will soon become the rule after clubs ratified the long-debated Financial Fair Play guidelines earlier this month. The plan, which goes into effect this summer, will limit how much debt teams can take on over a three-season period while instituting what amounts to a soft cap on salary increases.
The cap may be breached if a club can cover the additional costs through added commercial revenue — a clause that benefits sponsorship-rich teams such as United while hurting rivals like Chelsea and Manchester City, which have been funding their payrolls primarily out of their owners' deep pockets.
Numbers are all adding up for Manchester United, Los Angeles Times, April 27, 2013.
And yet look at the Bundesliga, which is about to put two teams in the Champions League Final....They mainly develop their players and don’t go on the wild spending binges, that their English and Spanish counterparts do.