Manchester United's summer signings cost £36.7m more than the club publicly stated

Manchester United spent £191.7m on summer signings, according to exchange filings published on Thursday — £36.7m more than the £155m figure the club communicated when the four deals were announced.

United brought in goalkeeper Karl Darlow on a free transfer, midfielder Andrey Santos for £48m plus £2m in add-ons, Youri Tielemans for £35m, and Carlos Baleba for £65m plus £5m in add-ons. Those headline figures add up to £155m including add-ons, leaving a £36.7m discrepancy against the total recorded in the club’s official filings.

The gap is likely explained by costs that sit outside the transfer fees themselves. Agent commissions — typically up to ten per cent of a deal’s value — and the Premier League’s four per cent levy on transfers, which primarily funds the PFA player pension scheme, can collectively add a significant sum on top of any publicly stated fee. The Manchester Evening News has approached United for a formal breakdown of what the difference consists of.

The filings, released a day after the club’s end-of-year financial results, also confirmed that United have borrowed a further £90m since 30 June. The club drew down £120m across three tranches on 29 July, 31 July, and 28 August through its rolling credit facility, before repaying £30m on 21 September.

That additional borrowing pushes United’s overall debt to £1.15 billion — a figure that sits uneasily alongside the club’s plans for a new stadium. United’s own estimate puts the cost of a new ground at £2 billion, and an updated projection due in 2026 could push that figure considerably higher.

The project is intended to be privately financed, with the club in what it describes as “positive conversations” with potential investors and stakeholders. Selling the naming rights to the new stadium forms part of the funding strategy; a European stadium naming fair market value report compiled by industry analysts earlier this year suggested United could generate around £15m per season from such a deal, equating to roughly £150m over a ten-year term.