Manchester United's biggest problem has become even bigger under Ineos

It is one year since Ineos completed their takeover of Manchester United and so far it has been a troubled relationship. It is tradition to mark the first anniversary of a partnership with a paper gift, the one that was handed to United fans came a day early, their latest set of financial results.

Ineos can not escape the timing of those figures and the glaring reality that for all their cost-cutting, the hundreds of redundancies, and the increase in ticket prices, the thing that is crippling the club more than anything else is the debt that has risen once again.

Those latest financial figures revealed that interest costs associated with the Glazer buyout of the club have now reached the £1 billion mark. The total debt is £731m, and a further £300m is owed in transfer fees. If Ineos had not injected an additional £80m into the club, they would have just £15m available in cash. Until that changes, nothing else will.

The Glazers aren't going anywhere

Avram Glazer has reiterated he has no plans to sell his stake in Manchester United, one year after they completed the partial sale of the club to Jim Ratcliffe. United supporters had hoped the Glazer family would leave for good when they put the club up for sale in late 2022, but instead of a clean break from the previous regime, Ratcliffe has worked alongside the old owners rather than replace them entirely.

A lot of scrutiny has been placed on the recent partial sale, as well as the controversial leveraged buyout of the club back in 2005, but the bad news for United fans is that they aren't planning to go anywhere.

On Wednesday night, Glazer was asked by a Sky Sports reporter in the United States if he would consider selling his stake in the club, to which he simply replied 'no.' He also refused to be drawn on the criticism of Ratcliffe amid more planned redundancies and responded: "I'm on my way to see the president right now. I don't think it's appropriate to talk about it right now."

United fans would challenge him to pick an 'appropriate' time that would work for him to address the growing concerns around the club and how they plan to tackle the issue of the rising debt when hard-working people are losing their jobs.

MUST slam the financial mismanagement of the club

Shortly after United's Q2 financial results were published, the Manchester United Supporters Trust criticised the continued financial mismanagement of the club as the debt rose to the £1bn mark.

"Today’s financial results lay bare the scale of the financial mismanagement we have seen at Manchester United. Amongst the low-lights revealed in the figures are: A pre-tax loss for the three months of £38m, The Club spent £14.5m on giving Erik Ten Hag a new contract and sacking him four months later, £18.8m in debt interest payments over six months, taking the total interest costs since the Glazers’ leveraged buyout to more than £1bn, Without the INEOS cash injection of £80m, the club would be down to £15m cash, £210m drawn down on the Revolving Credit Facility (club “credit card”) leaving total debt at £731m plus over £300m in transfer fees owed.

"United has amongst the highest revenues in world football and yet we see huge financial problems in these results, driven by £19m in debt interest payments (over six months), mismanagement including paying £14.5m compensation to a manager only given a new contract a few months earlier, a disastrous record in player trading over the last decade, and now dreadful performances on the field making matters worse with every league place we fall costing a further £4m in prize money.

"In this context, it is clear that ticket prices at United are plainly not the problem with the recent £66 changes raising less than £2m. This shows big increases in prices would be futile and counterproductive, making only a trivial difference to the financial challenge whilst hugely harming fan sentiment and worsening the mood in the ground which inevitably feeds through to even worse team performances.

"Fans should not pay the price for a problem that starts with our crippling debt interest payments and is exacerbated by a decade or more of mismanagement. It’s time to freeze ticket prices and allow everyone - players, management, owners and fans - to get behind United and restore this club to where it belongs."

READ NEXT: 'Working hard' - Omar Berrada gives verdict on Manchester United season and two things that have 'pleased' him