Manchester United were in line for a £10 million deal after secret talks were revealed between the club and a major broadcasting company.
It’s safe to say that Manchester United’s 2024-25 season was nothing short of a disaster, with the club finishing 15th in the Premier League, and missing out on Champions League football, owing to their 1-0 loss to Tottenham in the Europa League final.
Ruben Amorim joined the club in November, with the hope that he would steady the ship after a rocky start to the season under former boss Erik ten Hag. However, his team struggled to adapt to his 3-4-2-1 system, often requiring coaching throughout games.
Going into Amorim’s first full season at Old Trafford, he’s looking to oversee a major re-build of his current squad, with a number of players expected to leave, including the likes of Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Jadon Sancho.
Despite United’s current financial struggles, they have turned down a deal with Amazon worth significantly more than £10 million to document their 2025/26 campaign, after concluding that it could distract from the first team’s progress.
United praised for avoiding Amazon documentary
Amazon’s “All or Nothing” documentaries have become extremely popular over the past few years, with clubs such as Arsenal, Manchester City, and Tottenham all being documented as part of the series.
Reports suggested that Amazon had been in negotiations with Manchester United for several months to gain full access to the club for the 2025/26 campaign.
Speaking to Football Insider, Man City’s former financial adviser, Stefan Borson, praised the decision, explaining that not having Amazon exclusive inside access has saved Amorim a potential major disaster.
“It says a lot that they were even considering it really in the middle of what is a crisis,” Borson said. “We’d all love to watch it and that says it all, doesn’t it?
“I think that they’ve made a sensible decision. I don’t think £10 million is good compensation for a scenario where it can go as badly wrong as it could do. The risk there of an unstable season and then the media clipping that you get if it goes wrong in that season is big.
“I think they’d be crazy to do it and, sure enough, it doesn’t look like they are going to.”
What were the club thinking?
While United’s need to maximise every possible revenue stream has been very clear, walking away from a £10 million deal could be up there with the best bits of business the club could do this summer, considering the current state of the club.
While the appeal is there from Amazon’s point of view, the fact that it was almost greenlit should be a cause for major concern to United fans.
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The Athletic reported that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS were very much on board with the idea. Despite this, Amorim’s protests were heard, and talks were ultimately stopped. However, he will be concerned that he was even approached with such a proposal.
Perhaps the fact that talks weren’t immediately shut down suggests that INEOS expects a much better season than they can show the world. Still, the Portuguese manager has already been denied one of the things he wanted most, which was a full pre-season with his desired squad.
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