Ultimately this debt does harm and restrict United greatly, and is something that has held back the most successful side in English football immensely since their American owners came to town. It seems as though for all their greed and "corruptness," the Glazers have in fact brought some positives to the club.
After all—business issues aside—since the Glazers came to Manchester in , United have won four Premier League trophies and a Champions League, amongst other minor silverware. Certainly it seems as though their presence at the club hasn't done the side too much harm when it comes to performances out on the pitch.
I try not to let the business side of things cloud my love for the beautiful game. Perhaps that's narrow minded of me. My view is that football is something that helps us escape from the hustle and bustle of the "real world," and emerges us in an odd sort of wonder and excitement.
Letting financial issues when your club is very secure taint that seems somewhat odd to me. But then, everyone is entitled to their own opinion's on football and on the Glazers' role in it. Enjoy our content? Join our newsletter to get the latest in sports news delivered straight to your inbox!
If by backed you mean spent the money the club itself generates every year, while injecting absolutely nothing of their own, I suppose you're right. If you take a look at the numbers it really is staggering how many different ways they have found to take money out of the club, while putting nothing in.
When you compare this with some of the other owners, problematic as they may be, you get a sense of the frustration felt by fans. Putting aside the dividend payments they give themselves something no other Premier League club owner does , the "Directors' fees", the personal loans taken out against the club's name, and the laundry list of other ways the Glazers have found to profit from the club, even if you grant that "they" have invested in the transfer market, they've made a real hash of it.
Since Ed Woodward took over from David Gill in the top chair in , there have been some real embarrassments, and as the ones who chose to put him there, the Glazers are ultimately responsible for his failures. In Woodward's first transfer window, David Moyes told him to look into Cesc Fabregas and Thiago among others, signings which would have been totally realistic in years gone by.
He ended up with Marouane Fellaini above the going rate. Then there were the galacticos on whom they massively overspent on wages, fees or both. Numerous other underwhelming signings were made of players who just couldn't cut it at United.
Some breakthroughs were made along the way. Zlatan Ibrahimovic could be described as a success at the club, despite marginalising promising young players in the process. For all the derision he receives, Paul Pogba is a world class player. Like many of his counterparts, he has likely suffered from mismanagement at the hands of Jose Mourinho and others. Nonetheless, the overall picture is one of chaos and not cohesion.
Woodward has presided over some of the worst decisions in the history of the transfer market, locking the club into deals with huge wage packets for players far past their best or simply not good enough. He's often failed to lock down the players his coaches have really wanted and resorted to paying above the odds for mediocrity.
Until Ole Gunnar Solksjaer took over, there was very little clear direction. At least United seem to have an identity now and are progressing as a team. Before that it's been a carnival of confusion and ultimately a period of stagnation for a club which at one time dominated English football. Popular United fan and YouTuber Mark Goldbridge produced a Twitter thread detailing just a few of the most egregious cases of mismanagement which have cost, and will continue to cost, the club money and success.
One other way the Glazer's cost United success and money that never gets highlighted is in their terrible football business acumen. Here's a thread of examples. Ander Herrera allowed to run down. Woodward has been fond of signing players up to long term deals with hefty salaries, costing the club millions during his tenure.
For all the carnage caused off the pitch financially by the Glazers' and Woodward's running of the club, things on the pitch are likely to have caused greater widespread reputational damage. As United continue to falter in their search for that elusive 14th Premier League crown, the question must be asked: in what way have fans benefitted from the Glazer's ownership?
One of the biggest problems to come to light during the European Super League scare was just how little the owners of elite clubs engage with fans. This will have come as no surprise to most but it really is incredible the contempt to which they seem to hold the people who keep their businesses afloat. Or do we? It is becoming ever clear that to many owners the football fan, or "legacy fan" as we were described openly in the ESL's own documentation, is nothing more than an inconvenience, generating very little money in comparison to what they could get from their global fanbases, while moaning about silly things like history, culture and ethics.
Rory Jennings, YouTuber and Chelsea fan recently pointed out on the Kick Off that for those running these businesses, the traditional fan is not the one who should be courted. Football was and always has been a sport for and by the working class. Most fans today are still part of that demographic, or perhaps the lower middle class. A parallel for this example often used is the Mansour family, the ruling dynasty of Abu Dhabi, who took over Manchester City in This money is all ones and zeros behind a screen.
It just sits there, growing, accruing interest. Saucy, saucy interest, making those shares worth more in the long-term. But the retirement of the club's hugely successful manager Alex Ferguson, who won a record 13 Premier League championships and two European Champions League titles, led to another wave of opposition to the Glazers.
United have not won a Premier League title since Ferguson's departure in , struggling to compete with local rivals Manchester City and Liverpool. Manchester United fans protesting against their owners outside the stadium, on May 2, Many protests have focused on the Glazer-appointed executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward who, while widely praised for the club's commercial success in striking global sponsorship deals, was blamed for a succession of poor player signings and coaching appointments.
Woodward tendered his resignation in the midst of the Super League fall-out but his departure has done nothing to calm the anger of hard-core United fans. But the Glazers have lasted 16 years in the face of hostility and there has been no indication they plan a quick sale. United issued a statement on the protests on Sunday but did not address the question of their owners' future or provide any comment from Glazer.
Join ST's Telegram channel here and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. We have been experiencing some problems with subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused.
0コメント