Manchester United finally closed the chapter on their saga revolving around the future of controversial player Mason Greenwood as they announced that he would be leaving the club, but many started wondering if they are still actually paying him his contracted wages.
The Red Devils took a LONG time and a lot of deliberation before making their final decision on the future of the English forward. Greenwood has not been seen anywhere near the first-team since late January, 2022 – when he was accused of domestic violence and assault charges by his partner.
He was immediately suspended after an arrest and was involved in a legal case for nearly a year, until earlier this February, when the UK police forcibly closed the case after charges against him were dropped. A few months later after that, Greenwood became a father for the first time, allegedly with the partner who laid the charges on him.
What decision did United make for Greenwood’s future?
But after the UK police dropped the legal case on him, United were adamant that they would hold their own internal investigation onto the accusations. They took nearly six months to give a verdict on that, which came on Monday (August 21) when the Red Devils stated that they did not feel him guilty of the accusations that were brought up against him.
However, to avoid potential backlash, it was decided that it’d be best for Greenwood to resume his football career away from Old Trafford. The Red Devils ultimately decided to sever their ties with him, and will now look to phase him away from the club despite him being contracted to them until 2025.
This entire saga took some wild twists and turns before a final verdict was achieved. At one point, recently, it was rumoured that the club were thinking of bringing him back to the first-team squad despite the obvious public backlash it would cause from fans, politicians, and domestic violence charities.
After reports of his potential return spread, a widespread uproar on social media – which includd those from prominent personalities, reportedly forced them to change their plans. The club realized that they would find themselves in hot water with many prominent figures if the brought him back and just let him go to be safe.
Is Greenwood still being paid during suspension period?
However, many fans have started wondering if Greenwood has been actually paid by the club and if he’ll continuously get paid despite being suspended for the last 17+ months. Well, it appears that he has indeed been kept on full pay during his suspended stint at the club and that his contract is still rolling on despite the Englishman not playing a game for them since January 2022.
This is mostly due to the labour laws in the UK. As per the UK govt website, this is how the law works regarding suspension: “You can be suspended without pay if your employment contract says your employer can do this, but they must be acting reasonably.
“If your employment contract does not say your employer can do this, your employer may still be able to suspend you, but with pay. To show that it’s not a punishment the suspension will normally be on full pay.”
Hence as a result, United had to keep paying Greenwood his deserved wages or else could’ve been entangled into a legal case for not paying him his duties. Greenwood had signed a four-year contract with the Red Devils in 2021, that was stated to expire on June, 2025.
As a result, he is actually contracted to the club for almost two more years. Greenwood has a yearly salary of £3.9 million (£75,000-a-week or £300,000-a-month) and has received a lot of money from the Red Devils since he was suspended by the club in February, 2022.
Even though he has been exiled by the club for 19 months, Greenwood has still bagged a whopping £5.7 million in wages from the club. That means United have been paying a lot of money to someone who hasn’t played for nearly two years and won’t play in the future either.
If he wants, Greenwood can actually stay put and see out his contract (until June, 2025) and earn his entire money. However, the forward desperately wants to restart his career somewhere else. He will not return to the United first-team squad, but the club are considering options to let him resume his career elsewhere.
The Red Devils could reportedly loan him to a club this summer with an obligation to buy permanently in 2024. This would probably result in him being paid by United until at least 2024 (as most loans see the parents club pay some or all of their players’ wages).
However, United are probably now just focused on getting rid of Greenwood and fully distancing themselves from this controversial saga that has been lingering as a black cloud over their heads for a long time now.
