Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says their elimination from the Champions League is the “punch in the face” the club needs to wake up to the gap in investment between themselves and their rivals.
United’s European journey ended at the quarter-final stage after they were beaten 2-1 by Bayern Munich in Germany, having lost the first leg 3-2 at Old Trafford last week.
The club’s exit from the competition came on the same day as the publication of their accounts for the 2024-25 season, which showed their wage bill was half that of Women’s Super League rivals Arsenal. United also spent far less on agent fees between February 2025 and 2026 than their competitors.
Asked whether the expectation on his team is too high given the gap in resources, Skinner gave a bullish response.
“I think we will learn from what investment is really needed to go into this level of competition for consistent years,” he said.
“I think we’re still learning as a club. I have incredible pressure, you know that, you read everything every day, sometimes you write it. I have incredible pressure and I hold that pressure. I want to say this, I’m incredibly proud of what my players are doing with the resources we have.
“Because we wear Manchester United’s badge, everybody expects us to be the very best team in the world. We have that expectation too. So that’s the pinch point, because we want to be the best. We’ve got to grow because we’re eight years old. We’re eight years old. You [can] give me all the flak, that’s fine, that’s no problem, that’s my job.
“But if we want to compete at this latter stage, we’ve seen what we’ve got to do, as a club. And then it’s our choice now, isn’t it? We have to look at what we seriously want to achieve and we’ll learn and grow from it. Even as a club, we’re still learning. It takes, sometimes, a punch in the face to wake up.”
United were without eight first-team players because of injury for this second leg but started strongly and deservedly took the lead after 11 minutes. Melvine Malard capitalised on a defensive error to finish into an empty net and bring her side level on aggregate.
But United were undone by two set-pieces in the second half. The first saw Glodis Viggosdottir send a header past Phallon Tullis-Joyce. That goal meant United needed to score and they turned to Lea Schuller and Gabby George. But before either could come on, Bayern scored a second. Viggosdottir’s header was cleared off the line to Linda Dallmann, who fired a half-volley into the roof of the net.
United face a battle to qualify for Champions League next season, with the club currently outside of the WSL top three on goal difference.
Skinner said: “When we have eight players out currently, we just couldn’t compete enough in that second half. If we’d had them, I honestly think we could have gone through tonight, that’s how well we played in the first half.
“We’ve had a taste of it now. We need to design the squad with that depth of experience in order to go to that stage, if that’s what we want to do.”
Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1): Mahmutovic 5; Gwinn 6 (Ballisager 90), Viggosdottir 7, Gilles 6, Simon 6 (Caruso 85); Kakounan 6, Stanway 7; Dallmann 7, Tanikawa 7, Kett 6; Harder 6.
Subs not used: Grohs, Kreuzpaintner, Eriksson, Padilla, Dunst, Imade, Zahringer.
Goals: Viggosdottir 80, Dallmann 84.
Manchester United (4-3-3): Tullis-Joyce 6; Riviere 7, Le Tissier 6, Turner 6 (George 86), Lundkvist 6 (Schuller 86); Zigiotti 6, Miyazawa 6, Awujo 5 (Naalsund 63); Park 6, Malard 7, Rolfo 6.
Subs not used: Rendell, Middleton-Patel, Anderson.
Booked: Le Tissier.
Goal: Malard 11.
Referee: Tess Olofsson (Sweden).
Attendance: 25,000.
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