Shocking: Man United star on the brink of pay cut from next season
Apr 6, 2016 at 12:49 PM
Manchester United winger Memphis Depay is all set for a 25% pay cut next season, but it is not due to an underwhelming debut season at Old Trafford following his £25m summer move from PSV Eindhoven.
Instead, the drop in the player’s £100,000-a-week wages was actually mentioned in his contract from the very start – the details of which have now been exposed by the unscrupulous website Football Leaks.
Last week the controversial outlet leaked the transfer agreement which saw Memphis trade Eindhoven for Manchester, and now they have got their hands on the Dutch player’s individual contract as well.
For his first season at United, the paperwork says, Memphis will earn a total of £5.2m in basic salary. It’s a figure that equates to £100,000-per-week, but it will automatically drop to £75,000 (£3.9m annually) on 1st July 2016.
But keeping in mind this fact, there is still a way by which Memphis could see his basic wage remain at £5.2m next season as per an agreement depending on United’s possible qualification for the Champions League.
Even though his salary will at first fall, the contract states that Depay is entitled to a £1.3m annual increase for the 2016/17 campaign if the club makes it to the group stages of Europe’s elite club competition – either automatically or via extra qualifying rounds.
But with Manchester United still facing a serious battle with both Manchester City and West Ham for the Premier League’s seemingly most important fourth place, there are certainly no such guarantees.
Memphis is also subject to a further £1.3m pay rises for each of the two seasons after that, based on the same criteria. So it means that assuming United can back into the Champions League for 2016/17 and stay there, the Dutchman could actually be earning £7.8m-per-year (£150,000 each week) by 2018/19.
A report published by The Sun recently claimed the Old Trafford hierarchy is planning to offload a series of their under-performing players at the end of this season as part of a summer overhaul.
The list includes Depay, with the tabloid suggesting that United are ready to listen to offers for the forward.
The promising attacker arrived at Manchester United last summer after winning the Eredivisie with PSV Eindhoven. Louis van Gaal spent a rumoured £31 million to land the forward to Old Trafford, but since then Depay hasn’t been able to impress, scoring just two goals in the Premier League.
The forward also has been somewhat marginalised in recent weeks by van Gaal, as the Dutch coach now prefers to use youngsters such as Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford.
The 22-year-old performed so badly following his sensational move to the Premier League, that despite the high profile nature of his transfer, Louis van Gaal had no other choice but to drop him from the team.