Yes, that is indeed the headline. But read the first line of the article.

 

Its sounds perfectly reasonable that United are the worlds most valuable club - stadium, players, assets , market etc but define richest ? Who has the most money?

 

Surely a team like City or Chelsea who are been bankrolled by multi billionaires would be cash richer?

 

Just my take on it.

Portsmouth cant be the end of this if there is to be any kind of rational analysis on it. Man U top this list, perenially sucessful, take in more money than any other club, have a bigger worldwide reach than probably any other club, so how the f**k are they in debt to the tune of £ 800 mill STG ?.

Easy answer ' The Glazers' but this isn't really the issue, the issue becomes who gave them this borrowed money and how they intend to get it back. Ronaldo can only be sold the once, the debt does not go away and still has to be repaid. How exactly do you do that if you need to spend further cash in order to keep the squad at the top in order to win more stuff and take in more money ?

Football is cyclical, Utd are not exactly going to disappear overnight, but there will come a time they won't win as much as they used to, the debt wont go anywhere in the meantime. This business model is fundamentally flawed (not just Utd, football in general) and can only end in failure in the long run. It is doing what the likes of Leeds, Portsmouth, Cardiff and even Shelbourne did, all on a lesser scale than Man U or Liverpool, you would have to question where it will end.