The one thing about hitting rock bottom is that the only way from there is up.
Manchester United finished a lowly eighth in the Premier League last season, a whopping 31 points behind neighbours and eventual champions Manchester City. That manager Erik ten Hag managed to retain his job was a surprise.
United did have one bright spot in the 2023/24 season: beating City in the FA Cup final.
But United were handed a reality check early into the new season in the form of a Community Shield defeat on penalties to City.
United looked set to repeat their FA Cup final win in May when Alejandro Garnacho opened the scoring at Wembley on 82 minutes.
However, Bernardo Silva's header forced the game to penalties, where City edged a marathon shoot-out 7-6.
United have added to their ranks with the signings of striker Joshua Zirkzee from Bologna, as well as in-demand teenage defender Leny Yoro. They followed that with the double signing of Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich.
The arrivals of De Ligt and Mazraoui couldn't have been better timed as Yoro is set to be sidelined for three months with a foot injury and full-back Luke Shaw will miss the start of the season with a calf problem.
Another United defender, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, has joined Premier League rivals West Ham United for a reported fee of £15 million.
Wan-Bissaka agreed a seven-year contract with the Hammers after spending five years at Old Trafford. The right-back made 190 appearances for United following his 2019 move from Crystal Palace.
The 26-year-old appeared in the FA Cup final win but was not in United manager Ten Hag's plans for the new season.
Still, there is hope that United can turn things around. British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has assumed control of football operations and has made major changes at boardroom level as well as on the pitch.
Plans are in place to build a new and state-of-the-art stadium to replace the dilapidated Old Trafford.
Whether all that positivity will seep into the squad remains to be seen. For now, United players can at least be certain of fervent support from their massive fan base. Also, they are assured of some of the best salaries in football.
Below is the list of the top-earning players at Old Trafford for the 2024-25 season. List complied using data from caplogy.com and spotrac.com.
Highest paid players at Manchester United for 2024-25
1. Casemiro - £350,000 per week
2. Marcus Rashford - £300,000 per week
=3. Jadon Sancho - £250,000 per week
3. Mason Mount - £250,000 per week
5. Bruno Fernandes - £240,000 per week
6. Antony - £200,000 per week
7. Harry Maguire - £190,000 per week
=8. Luke Shaw - £150,000 per week
8. Christian Eriksen - £150,000 per week
=10. Victor Lindelof - £120,000 per week
10. Andre Onana - £120,000 per week
10. Lisandro Martinez - £120,000 per week
13. Leny Yoro - £115,000 per week
14. Joshua Zirkzee - £105,000 per week
=15. Diogo Dalot - £85,000 per week
15. Rasmus Hojlund - £85,000 per week
17. Tyrell Malacia - £75,000 per week
18. Jonny Evans - £65,000 per week
19. Scott McTominay - £60,000 per week
20. Alejandro Garnacho - £50,000 per week
21. Tom Heaton - £45,000 per week
22. Altay Bayindir - £35,000 per week
23. Amad Diallo - £28,000 per week
=24. Kobbie Mainoo - £20,000 per week
24. Facundo Pellistri - £20,000 per week
26. Hannibal Mejbri - £15,000 per week
27. Willy Kambwala - £7,500 per week
Note: Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui salaries not yet released.
The specs
Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
THE APPRENTICE
Director: Ali Abbasi
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Maria Bakalova, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 3/5
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Big%20Ape%20Productions%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20LucasArts%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsoles%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20PC%2C%20PlayStation%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Results for Stage 2
Stage 2 Yas Island to Abu Dhabi, 184 km, Road race
Overall leader: Primoz Roglic SLO (Team Jumbo - Visma)
Stage winners: 1. Fernando Gaviria COL (UAE Team Emirates) 2. Elia Viviani ITA (Deceuninck - Quick-Step) 3. Caleb Ewan AUS (Lotto - Soudal)
Company profile
Name: Tharb
Started: December 2016
Founder: Eisa Alsubousi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: Luxury leather goods
Initial investment: Dh150,000 from personal savings
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Dolittle
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Michael Sheen
One-and-a-half out of five stars
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
Best Foreign Language Film nominees
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
