Finance expert Kieran Maguire has labelled Manchester United’s move for former Real Madrid head of partnerships strategy Kendall Crean as “absolutely critical”.
What’s the latest Man United news involving Crean and what has Maguire said?
Crean announced on LinkedIn earlier this month that she has landed a role at Old Trafford as partnerships director. Formerly of Real Madrid and Arsenal, Crean looks set to be tasked with improving the club’s commercial output, with the Red Devils recording £257.8m in commercial revenue in their 2022 report.
Talking to Football Insider regarding the move for Crean, Maguire, a regular finance expert and commenter for Sky Sports, labelled it as an “absolutely critical” appointment and “important” from a business perspective, should Erik ten Hag manage to take the club back to the top on the pitch.
“This is an absolutely critical appointment because if we look at Man United’s commercial income – since 2016 it has flatlined.
“It was £268m in 2016, it was £258 in 2022. This is despite the fact that the club now has additional opportunities to market and commercialise the club such as sleeve sponsorship.
“I think what we have seen at Man United is that Ed Woodward’s famous quote – ‘this club does not need to win football matches to be commercially successful’ – has been proved to be inaccurate.
“The appointment of Crean is important because if Erik ten Hag does return Man United to their former glory, then they need an astute individual to make sure commercial deals are benefiting the club as much as possible.”
Could an Old Trafford takeover help?
The Red Devils currently have plenty of high-profile sponsors including Adidas, Tezos and Cadbury, so Crean will be looking to help United continue to grow off the pitch after a 22.2% rise in commercial revenue last year.
Something which could help the Red Devils grow even further with that may well be a takeover. The club’s stock market valuation rose by 17% back in November after it emerged that the Glazers could sell up, but we are still awaiting a potential takeover to go through.
The likes of Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe appear to be the frontrunners when it comes to a full takeover from the Glazers, with a third and final round of bids on the cards. The deadline for those offers are Friday 28th April, so it’ll be interesting to see what will happen next.