If you had said a few months ago that Manchester United would be three points off a Champion’s League spot by the final week of January, you would have been laughed at.

Now, following a resurgence under caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær that has seen the likes of Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford return to form, they’re nipping on Chelsea and Arsenal’s heels, and United fans have suddenly found their voice again.

When it comes to finances, and the business side of things, they’re also sitting pretty, although they’re no longer top of Deloitte’s Football Money League.

Ranking the top 20 clubs by revenue in world football, Manchester United have dropped down to third, with Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona taking the top two spots.

Goal reports:

The Blancos generated €750.9 million in revenue in the 2017-18 season, a new record, and were followed by rivals Barcelona (€690.4m) and Manchester United (€666m) in the rankings…

Though two La Liga teams top the rankings, the top 10 is dominated by English sides, with six of the 10 teams coming from the Premier League. It is the most teams ever in the top 10 from a single country.

Here’s your full top 20 table:

One of the main reasons so many Premier League teams appear, other than the obvious fact that it’s a global product and commands massive TV rights, is the fact that those rights are still shared out fairly evenly amongst all 20 teams each season.

That may not remain the case going forward, however  – this superb Guardian article shows how there’s something of a civil war going on in boardrooms at the moment.

Also, as an increasingly frustrated Newcastle United fan, I must bring up 19th spot. At this stage, if you cannot see that owner Mike Ashley is a parasite, you’re clearly not paying attention.

Jose Mourinho is out here complaining about not being able to compete with Manchester City and Liverpool, having spent in excess of £400m on players during his time in charge at Old Trafford, and Newcastle managers have to deal with this:

Anyway, rant over.

Here’s hoping for a Premier League season where the title goes down to the wire, with Newcastle nicking 17th and hanging on for another season in the big leagues.

[source:goal]