Manchester United lead the football world on shirt sales

Manchester United are producing the goods when it really matters.

Sure, the Red Devils might be outside the Premier League's top six and third in their Europa League group, but actual football competitions are just window dressing for the important stuff. José Mourinho's team have gone from strength to strength, topping the table when it comes to net spend over the summer and adding more and more partnerships to their billion dollar brand. And now, to cap it all off, they've claimed top honours in the really important table. That's right, shirt sales.

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According to the Manchester Evening News, a new report from German-based firm PR Marketing has found that United's shirt sales over the last five years exceed those of any other club in the world. United have sold - on average - 1.75m shirts per year across their last five Premier League seasons. That's 100,000 more per year than second-placed Real Madrid and more than double Liverpool's total. Dr Peter Rohlmann of PR Marketing is quoted by the paper as drawing attention to the "constant growth rate" of shirt sales over the time period. However, it should be noted that the figure doesn't come close to reaching the stage where certain transfer fees 'pay for themselves through shirt sales', as some uninformed fans have suggested in the past.

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A personalised shirt costs £71.95 in United's club shop, and even if they got that full amount 1.75m times (spoiler: they don't) the total wouldn't even cover the transfer fees spent this summer on Paul Pogba, Henrikh Mkitaryan and Eric Bailly, let alone the wages paid to that trio (and fellow new boy Zlatan Ibrahimović). And that's before you throw in the fact that three of the five most popular names on the backs of United shirts - David de Gea, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial - were already at the club before this season. Still, nice table to top eh? Catch up with the latest episode of Football Friday Live