Manchester United are looking to end the season on a high, but the uncertainty behind the scenes continues to distract from events on the pitch.
United are sixth in the Premier League with four matches remaining, while they can still end the campaign with a trophy when the FA Cup final rolls around on May 25. There isn’t much positivity to be found at present, though, following the 2-2 draw against relegation-threatened Burnley on the weekend.
Erik ten Hag’s side are not back in action until Monday, when they travel to Crystal Palace, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been busy shaking things up behind the scenes. News arrived on Tuesday that Patrick Stewart, interim chief executive, and Cliff Baty, chief financial officer, will leave at the end of the season. More changes are expected when the summer transfer window arrives, but for now here are the latest news stories involving United.
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United wage problem exposed
Manchester United may only be sixth in the Premier League table, but they are top in terms of shelling out money to their players. The club pays out £3,821,000 per week to their underperforming stars – more than title-chasing Manchester City (£3,705,000) and Arsenal (£3,298,000).
United handed Casemiro a four-year contract worth around £350,000-a-week when they signed him from Real Madrid and those sorts of decisions are proving costly. The club knows they must sell players before they can buy this summer, with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules hindering their plans.
They are planning to offload high earners Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial, with the French duo both out of contract in June. Ratcliffe is also willing to listen to offers for other stars, including the likes of Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford.
Webb praises VAR for United penalty call
Referees chief Howard Webb has praised VAR for giving Burnley a penalty against United on the weekend after Andre Onana got away with a similar foul against Wolves at the start of the season. Onana was penalised on the weekend after smashing into Zeki Amdouni and Webb praised the process behind the penalty decision.
“That situation in week number one at Old Trafford should have led to a VAR intervention and didn't,” he said on Match Officials Mic'd Up. “This is very similar – Onana coming out and not making contact with the ball, making heavy contact with his opponent, not seen by the referee on the field. He sees [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka head the ball away but doesn't see the contact on Amdouni and the VAR sees that pretty quickly. It's a clear error not to award the penalty kick, and therefore recommends that the referee looks at it at the screen for himself and sees that heavy contact.
"And it is a penalty kick and there's no support for non-award of a penalty. Hence the reason it's a clear error. And we called it correctly and it's pretty efficient as well.”
Martinez and Rashford injury confusion
There has been a bit of uncertainty around the fitness of Marcus Rashford and Lisandro Martinez in the build-up to the Palace game. As Manchester World reports, the duo had been considered fit after Sky Sports posted a video of them in training.
But it turns out that Sky had accidentally used old training footage, so deleted the video that had been on social media. It remains to be seen if the duo make a return, but the Monday kick-off does give them extra time. Martinez has not played since picking up a calf injury in the 1-1 draw with Brentford at the end of March, while Rashford has sat out of the last two matches after suffering a knock in the FA Cup semi-final win over Coventry.
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