As finance expert Dan Jones of the financial firm Deloitte explained: "It's very difficult to spot a weak link at the moment. It's not just a great club with a great brand. They have a fantastic
merchandising operation, the biggest stadium in the country, they play in the richest and most successful league, they have a young, exciting team and they are winning titles again."
It may sound like there's a lot of underlying speculation to those claims, but here's the numbers break down: United's Glazer deals have (including Tevez) cost a grand total $194 million -- but the upfront costs for this year (minus Tevez) are only $66 million. So, if you subtract $11 million for Kieron Dyer's transfer and $12 million for Gabriel Heinze's supposed move to Liverpool, you get $43 million. Then subtract $22 million and $24 million for last year's sales of Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Jon Obi Mikel, respectively, and suddenly, United is in the black.