Do the owners deserve the hatred many Reds have for them?
… is the exact opposite to the opinions of most Manchester United fans.
It has been highly publicised about the amount of debt that the American owners have saddled onto the club and it has also been highly publicised how much the fans are discontent with this situation, more so when the club had to sell their most prized asset Cristiano Ronaldo for a record £80million transfer fee to service the debts. So why does the title say that the Glazers are good for Manchester United?
Nearly 4 league titles in 5 years and 3 Champions League finals in 4 years. That is why. There is absolutely no denying that this is one of the most successful periods in the club’s history.
Surely the Glazers must have something to do with this success right? I put it mainly down to the total freedom given to Sir Alex Ferguson. Unlike most other owners, the Glazers do not interfere. Sir Alex Ferguson does what he wants, when he wants and if he needs to be supported in the transfer market, the Glazers usually give their thumbs up.
When the Glazers took over, our club was still contracted with Kleberson! Clearly they saw the need to rebuild the team and that is exactly what has happened.
They’ve sanctioned quite a lot of big money transfers in their time too. Berbatov was of course a £30.75million signing. Common knowledge. But there have also been 5 other transfers during the Glazers reign that have had a price tag of over £15million, namely Carrick, Hargreaves, Anderson, Nani and Valencia. Some may argue that this has been funded by the departure of former World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo but the claims from the management is that this money is still in the bank waiting to be spent, hopefully on Ronaldo (one can dream).
Nevertheless buying a whole team of Joleon Lescotts for stupid amounts like £24million isn’t the Manchester United way and never will be. Manchester United is a club of values, traditions and hard work and so having players like Lescott who are almost mercenary is not what I would like to see at the club ever. Having a rich billionaire owner who imprints his lack of footballing knowledge all over the club, a la Abramovich, just wouldn’t cut it for me.
At least the way that Manchester United are currently spending money means we sign decent human beings who join us for the prestige of being at the biggest and the best club in the world rather than following the money. Players who join us come for the trophies, the achievements, not the bank balance. It is clear to see that our super signing Javier Hernandez is probably one of the most humble and grateful human beings in the world.
Chris Smalling, another revelation in the centre of our defence doesn’t look like a player who will ever demand stupid sums of money! If Bébé does somehow become the best player in the world, I’m pretty sure he won’t be giving any ultimatums on wage demands either. In fact he’d probably still go back to his orphanage to stay there as he has done from time to time this season.
I’d rather we sign these kinds of players with massive potential and teach them the Manchester United way than signing unproven players such as Lescott and Dzeko, who are basically half way through their career and have won nothing in their life, who come to the club automatically on a 6 figure a week sum to sit on the bench.
Maybe the Glazer family doesn’t have that much going for them in that the Manchester United faithful want them out but surely they do deserve more credit than they have been given. Surely nearly 4 Premiership titles in 5 years and 3 Champions League finals (more finals than we had got to in our history before the Glazers came to our club) in 4 years has warranted some kind of praise for the unpopular owners?
Or would be rather have extremely rich power craving owners like Roman Abramovich whose impatience with managers has probably cost his club success in the past few years since the team has to learn a new philosophy or way of playing every time a new manager comes in. For me the Glazers are nearly the perfect owners in that they stay out of the footballing side of things, and for me it is this that has bought along most of our success, but of course the finances let them down.
Have I gone in off the deep end or is there actually some merit to my seemingly outrageous point of view? Feel free to comment below.
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I knew this was coming !!!!
Lets see how they replace VDS, Scholes and Giggs 1st before we rush to give them Knighthoods.
Their ownership has nothing to do with their transfer policy or the way they manage the running of the club in an operational fashion
It has to do with the way they have used the club as leverage financially. They have taken a hugely profitable business and gambled that by winning trophies they will keep the ball rolling, allowing them to slowly strip the club.
No one wants an Abramovich, and sometimes its better the devil you know than the devil you dont…but its crazy to say they are ‘good’ for MUFC. Yes the trophies are flowing..but some of us are not that shallow when it comes to the club we love
Like that you haven’t just gone with the standard Glazers are c*nts routine. Saddling the club with large amounts of debt had been a disgrace however you are right that they don’t interfere and have backed SAF when required. The signings we make to replace VDS, Scholes and Giggs will show us exactly what’s been done with Ronaldo money (haven’t mentioned GNev as think Rafael + Fabio are his replacements). Good read mate, even if you will get a lot of abuse for it.
You know you’ve probably hit on something here . Its hard to say they are perfect owners as the debt transfer is totally unforgivable but the fact that they stay out of football matters is very important .
If they sanction a couple of the signings that we need this summer and we do the double at wembley prior to that I think the glazer Out campaigns will struggle to bait the widespread support that they briefly achieved last season .
And what Rob B says !!!!
I like many other fans will probably tell you, our success is not because of the glazers, it is inspire of them. We have a genius of a manager and you have a point abt the free reign that the glazers give, but to plunge us into debt, shaft the fans and restrict our spending? I can’t wait to see the back of them, I don’t buy into the bullshit of us always looking for value in the market. Have you forgotten the days of veron, rio, rvn, Andy Cole etc..? We have always bought big and supplemented it with cheaper buys like solksjaer, lee sharpe, Ronny johnsen etc..
Don’t let the glazer PR machine fool u
One interesting thing is how the owners have refrained from interfering, true. They came to a perfectly run club, though. We do not know how they would have behaved had Sven Göran Eriksson been at the helm or some other mortal soul. Instead we have the best manager in the history of the game. The only thing this tells you is that the owners are not stupid. How much they will interfere after Fergie is carried away, hopefully still twenty years from now :-), remains to be seen.
We must remember that the owners only exploited the market forces, which is a religion most people subscribe to these days. So if you want the rules to chance, do something about it.
It will be very telling when Sir Alex finally has to retire. Should (God forbid) Man United EVER drop out of the top four, and Glazer’s are missing all that extra millions of CL TV finance, you will see there true colours. They are already talking now about paying the players on a pay as you play scheme. While I am not averse to this, because I think players are grabbing greedy GITS, it will deter big players coming to United. It is only down to Fergie and his shrewdness that we pick up bargains like Chicharito and Ronnie was. Once Fergie goes – WELL!
Good article. Respect for not following the herd.
Yes, let all start bumming Glazer because we won the league. Lets get one thing very very straight. It’s not the Glazers, it’s Fergie. Anyone who says it’s not Fergie is a liar and fool. He knows he has to run a tight ship and with the team his got he has done a fantastic job. He did the same thing in the early late 1980s and early 1990s. He can pull together a team out of no where and he can also find that piece of magic. Anyone to me, saying Glazer won United the league, can fuck off. They haven’t, they come over only afew times a year. The only good thing they do, is leave him to it. Every other area of the club which they are involved in, whether it’s signing players, controlling ticket prices or attacking the fans. Is a joke. Sir Alex has taken United to where it is today, no one else has. Glazer wasn’t here in 1986, when it was going down the pan. Glazer wasn’t here in 1999. We never needed saving, we never needed Glazer. We didn’t need them then, we don’t need them now and we won’t need them in 10 years, when they’ve sold up and left. No one who really supports the club will ever miss them. #LUHG