Manchester United stars are set to miss out on millions of pounds after they were dumped out of Europe on Tuesday night. The Red Devils suffered a 1-0 Champions League defeat at Old Trafford at the hands of Bayern Munich and won’t even have the chance to resurrect their season in the Europa League in the spring after finishing rock bottom of the Group A table.
United suffered a dismal Champions League campaign this term as they finished with just one victory and one draw from their six group matches. If they had finished third in the Group A table they would have at least progressed to the Europa League knockout round play-offs in February. However, Galatasaray clinched third spot in the group, with Bayern and Copenhagen finishing in the top two.
Last season, the Daily Mail reported that United players were in line for an £85,000 bonus per player if they had won the Europa League.
Erik ten Hag’s players would have almost certainly been incentivised once again for their performance in Europe this season and would have been handed even more money if they had landed the Champions League trophy. It was claimed a Premier League title triumph last term would’ve earned them £250,000 each and so winning the Champions League would likely have earned them at least £100,000 per player.
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So the fact that they will not be competing in either European competition in the spring means the squad as a whole have missed out on millions of pounds.
United were woeful against Bayern and mustered just one shot on target during the game as the visitors secured their fifth Champions League win of the season. Kingsley Coman scored the only goal of the game in Manchester after latching onto Harry Kane’s pass with 20 minutes remaining and firing the ball past Andre Onana.
And after the final whistle, Red Devils manager Ten Hag told TNT Sports: “We made mistakes. Some individuals errors from more players. In the end, it’s not good enough.” He then added: “Today the performance was very good and we didn’t deserve to lose but we lost the game. The team did very good, we were very good in defensive organisation, we were very good in pressing. We played against a strong side. Bayern is a good team.
“We want to be more consistent. Me as a manger, I have to improve the team – I have to guide them and the team have to take responsibility. So we have to do that together. The target was to [reach the knockout stages] over the winter but we didn’t make it. We have to accept it, we have to learn from it.”
