- Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag will implement a salary ceiling of £200,000($242,939) per week for all players
- Christened the ‘Ronaldo rule’, it will be put into place by the Red Devils to cushion tension
- It will promote fairness among players
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag will implement a salary ceiling of £200,000($242,939) per week to prevent wage tension in the Old Trafford locker room.
Christened the ‘Ronaldo rule’, it will be put into place by the Red Devils after United parted ways with the Portuguese megastar.
It ended his £480,000-per-week deal in November 2022 following months of tension behind the scenes. The plan was developed by ten Hag, football director John Murtough, and chief executive Richard Arnold in an effort to combat a culture of envy inside the team.
According to the Sunday Mail, no player will be paid more than £200,000 per week. Veteran goalkeeper David de Gea will be the first to be impacted. Apparently, the 32-year-old goalkeeper agreed to take a considerable pay reduction on his soon-to-expire £375,000-a-week agreement.
Manchester united Locker room. Photo by Manchester Evening News
This is one of his moves to extend his contract at Old Trafford past the summer. The cost-cutting regulation will also have an effect on a number of players whose contracts are about to expire.
Before the Red Devils activated the one-year extension clauses in each of their contracts last month, Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw, Diogo Dalot, and Fred were all set to become free agents this June.
A brave move in Rashford’s case, as possible suitors Paris Saint-Germain would be willing to quadruple his income, is that United would remain fast and not offer any of them outrageous sums as each of them is scheduled to enter negotiations over new terms in the next 18 months.
Raphael Varane, Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes, and Casemiro, among other celebrities, are already paid between £180,000 and £200,000, according to the report, with consequences in place for their remuneration should United fail in the Champions League.
It’s a big cry from Ed Woodward’s era at Old Trafford, when the executive vice-chairman was infamous for awarding players with eye-popping contracts that sparked rivalry within the team.
De Gea has struggled to justify his money after signing a new contract in 2019, while Ronaldo put himself in subpar performances earlier in the season before leaving the team.
United’s most recent annual pay bill was projected to be worth a staggering £228 million, making it the most in the Premier League. Ten Hag doesn’t want his team to carry that label once again, mainly if the players receiving the large money aren’t performing as well as in previous seasons.
Manchester United manager Eric Ten Hag. Photo/ TEAMtalk.
In a recent interview with VI Magazine, the Dutch coach acknowledged that the club had recently purchased an unfathomable number of players that weren’t good enough.
He said that most of his purchases are average, and the average is not good enough with United. The United jersey is heavy, and only people who can perform well under pressure can play at Old Trafford, ten Hag stated.
“We needed personalities. That’s why the acquisition of Casemiro was so important. Along with Raphael Varane, we now have a second player who has experience of winning titles,” ten Hag noted.
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