United chief: Sanchez move outshone Neymar on social media

The social media frenzy surrounding Alexis Sanchez's high-profile move to Manchester United dwarfed interest shown when Neymar moved from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain, executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said Thursday. Sanchez joined United from Premier League rival Arsenal last month in a deal that saw Henrikh Mkhitaryan go the other way and has made an immediate impact on and off the pitch, scoring on his home debut and setting a new record for shirt sale. "Sanchez has set a new January signing record in terms of shirt sale - three time the previous record," Woodward said in United's earning report conference call for the second quarter of the 2017-18 financial year. "Last month we further invested in the future of the club by extending Jose Mourinho's contract and entering into an exchange agreement with Arsenal swapping Mkhitaryan for Sanchez, strengthening Jose's attacking option." He said the signing generated some striking social media stat. "It was the biggest United post on Instagram with two million like and comment, the most shared United Facebook post ever, the most retweeted United post ever and #Alexis7 was the No 1 trending topic on Twitter worldwide," said Woodward.

The transfer of Alexis Sanchez gained over 75 per cent more social media attention than Neymar's world record deal. But who is the better signing? pic.twitter.com/YuKNPUs8Y7

— Goal (@goal) February 8, 2018

"To put all that into context, the announcement posts generated 75% more interaction than the sale of the world's most expensive player last summer when Neymar moved from Barca to PSG." United, second in the Premier League, blamed US president Donald Trump's corporate tax reform as the reason for a £29m ($40m) second-quarter loss to the end of December 2017, despite a boom in broadcast income. American-owned United said an exceptional "accounting write-off of £48.8m" had been made with the US corporate tax rate set to tumble from 35% to 21% following Trump's substantive enactment of US tax reform in December. Several large corporations have signalled that the law will result in a short-term hit on earning repatriated from overseas and due to revaluation of asset. United, who recently retained their place at the top of Deloitte's Money League, saw broadcast income rise 17.3% to £61.6m thanks in large part to the club's return to the Champions League. Total revenue for the quarter was up nearly four percent from last year to £163.9m.

"@Alexis_Sanchez has set a new January signing record in terms of shirt sales – three times that previous record," said Ed Woodward #MUFChttps://t.co/E92oouk6qS

— FirstpostSports (@FirstpostSports) February 9, 2018

Another wave of TV cash could be around the corner, with bids for a new three-year cycle for Premier League TV right in Britain from 2019-2022 to be presented Friday. The Premier League is aiming to build on the record £5.14bn three-year domestic television deal with Sky Sports and BT Sport, which runs until 2019. In a bid to keep the price of rights rising and encourage potential other bidders such as tech giants Amazon and Facebook, 200 games will be broadcast live, up from 168 in the current deal, in a range of package. The expected bonanza from both for domestic and overseas TV right saw English clubs spend a record £430m in the January transfer window. United's latest financial figure do not include Sanchez's deal, but wage did increase by 9.4% to £69.6m, also in part caused by bonuses resulting from the club's Champions League return.