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Emily Keogh
Multiple Authors
MUNICH, Germany — Manchester United manager Marc Skinner called on the club to develop the depth needed to compete in Europe after losing 5-3 on aggregate to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals, saying the defeat could be the “punch in the face” the club needs to match the spending of Europe’s top clubs.
The visitors trailed heading into Wednesday’s second leg after Bayern secured a 3-2 win in the first match in Manchester last week. Though they evened the aggregate score early on in Munich, the hosts were able to net a quick double in the final 10 minutes to knock United, the debutants in their first full run in the competition, out of the tie.
United exceeded expectations in reaching the knockout rounds but after acknowledging the disparity in resources between Europe’s top clubs and United, Skinner called on the club to match the spending of those top clubs.
“I think we will learn from what investment is really needed to go into this level of competition for consistent years,” he said after the loss. “I think we’re still learning as a club, of course, we are.
“Because we wear Manchester United’s badge, everybody expects us to be the very best team in the world. We have that expectation too. So that’s the pinch point, because we want to be the best.
“We’ve got to grow because we’re eight years old. If we want to compete at this latter stage, we’ve seen what we’ve got to do as a club. And then it’s our choice now, isn’t it? We have to look at what we seriously want to achieve, and we’ll learn and grow from it. Even as a club, we’re still learning. It takes, sometimes, a punch in the face to wake up.”
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United only had four outfield substitutes available after missing eight players through injury, many are due to excessive overuse, Skinner confirmed.
In the most recent accounts, United’s wage bill of £5.88 million was about half of Arsenal’s spending of last season (£11.3m). They also spent significantly less on agent fees — £197k — while top-spenders Chelsea had an outlay of £1.08m.
“We need to design a team of the highest-level experience,” Skinner added. “Having the depth needed to compete — we’ve had a taste of it now — to have the depth and the experience of that depth, is key if you want to go later in these competitions.
“I’ve loved the competition, the levels of the competition, the different experiences, but when we have eight players out currently, we just couldn’t compete enough in that second half. If we’d had them, I honestly think we could have gone through tonight, that’s how well we played in the first half.
“We’ve had a taste of it now. We need to design the squad with that depth of experience in order to go to that stage, if that’s what we want to do.”
