Tag Archives: glazer

Thieves Like Us

Confession: up until a couple of years ago, I was broadly in favour of a new ground. I’m not particularly sentimental when it comes to buildings plus I don’t think I’m the only one who feels OT lost its soul when the Stretford End was demolished. So when the question of moving periodically came up I would blithely wave it away and claim I wasn’t really bothered. Admittedly, this could also have been influenced by the fact I didn’t think there was even the remotest chance of it ever happening. The club has been saddled with massive debts for 20 years+ so the prospect always seemed a non-starter.

Other clubs have borrowed heavily to finance new stadiums but United are already mortgaged up to their eyeballs just to try and remain competitive. That’s the net result of 2 decades of Glazer occupation during which time OT has barely changed. In an ideal world we’d have built over the railway line when plans for that were drawn up in the early noughties. They’ve shown no interest in infrastructure investment from the minute they took over. Instead it’s been the odd lick of paint here and there and several failed attempts at fixing the famously leaking roof. Scandalous really, but that’s where we’re at.

It’s now 18 months since there was any news on the proposed new stadium but last week Collette Roche was wheeled out to provide an update of sorts. Although she trilled enthusiastically about making a lot of progress over the last year, as usual there was little substantive detail provided. Apparently the land acquisition is progressing “really, really well” but there was nothing to suggest any movement on the reported deadlock with Freightliner. Given there’s a reputed £350M gap in valuations to overcome, don’t expect this one to be resolved quickly.

There’s still no indication of exactly who’s planning to pay for it either, although the club have now confirmed (as long suspected) that they’re seeking outside investment. The likely source of funding will be from US-based private equity giants, the likes of Blackstone Inc, Ares Management or Apollo Global. Another possibility would be the Carlyle Group, who were reported to be in talks with the Glazers when they were finalising plans to sell part of their stake in the club back in 2023.

Aside from coming clean about financing, there was literally nothing else to report. The rest of the interview saw Roche trotting out the usual platitudes about fan engagement, “we want to build this stadium with them, not for them”, which is quite frankly the biggest load of bollocks I’ve ever heard in my life. Not a single United fan I know wants this move and most people actively despise the idea. As has been clear from the start of this process, the club had a preordained idea what they wanted and any efforts to consult with fans on the subject are merely performative

At the first round of Town Hall Meetings at OT in 2024 we were told that this was just the first step and there would be plenty more opportunities to engage. In the subsequent 18 months there’s been a single survey sent out gauging reaction to various ticketing options (rest assured, this proposed debenture scheme will definitely happen)… and that’s it. Apparently there were some smaller focus groups held last year (including season ticket holders and members) but I’ve no idea how they were selected – I attended the first meeting and haven’t heard anything since.

Whilst I’m sure the club are determined to retain outright ownership of the new stadium, the fact the entire project is reliant on outside investment raises the distinct possibility that this might not be the case. Further debt financing is neither desirable nor affordable so I expect an entirely new structure could be the most likely outcome. MUFC would become a separate entity with a joint venture company or special purpose vehicle (SPV) forming to encompass everything related to the new stadium.

Although there’s no official confirmation that MUFC won’t be the primary owners, given that existing debts are at such a high level, it’s hard to see how they’ll secure funding without setting up a “stadium company” model. This kind of lease-back arrangement with shared ownership would be infinitely more attractive to any potential investor. It would result in MUFC technically paying rent to the stadium company who would then use that revenue to pay down the loans taken out that funded the building costs.

The optics around this are pretty terrible of course, but INEOS are well-versed in spin and they’ll be plenty of client journalists on-hand to pretend this is all very wholesome and above board. Call me a dinosaur if you like but I’m still fuming that we’re being led down this path to start with. I’m absolutely convinced that the club’s claim of 52% of ST Holders and members being in favour of moving was inaccurate. Whilst we’re on that subject, why were members consulted at all? I’m not interested in what Rory from Hemel Hempstead who goes once a season thinks

I strongly suspect the main driver behind all this, ultimately, is the desire for one final gargantuan payday prior to the Glazers selling up. By borrowing heavily to fund a new stadium they’ll essentially be repeating what they did in 2005 – using someone else’s money to buy something they can’t afford and saddling the club (or “stadium company” in this case) with another couple of billion pounds of debt. Once the project is greenlit, both the club and the surrounding land will appreciate in value and revenue projections will increase. At that point the share price will rise sharply and they’ll be free to ride off into the sunset.

Every club who moves starts off thinking their new home is brilliant before the initial excitement subsides and they start lamenting what they’ve lost. West Ham and Spurs went through it and Everton are currently in the process of realising life at the Hill-Dickinson isn’t all that. I’ve been to both the Met-Life and the SoFi in the USA and although visually impressive, they’re essentially gigantic, corporate megadomes. I’m calling it now, the novelty of selling off our history for chicken tenders, cup holders and £1500 season tickets will wear off in a matter of weeks.

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There’s Nothing Like This

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I’m writing during the middle of the winter break and honestly, its arrival came as a relief given it signalled a fortnight without having to suffer watching United play football. It’s debatable whether this last 6 months has been the nadir of the post-Ferguson era, but it’s certainly up there with the regrettable Moyes experiment and the 2nd season under Van Gaal. It’s been tortuous at times, and the forward trajectory and resultant optimism of a year ago has disappeared completely.

There are numerous mitigating factors of course, but it doesn’t alter the fact that United remain in a complete mess. Sometimes, like after the Villa home game, you look at them and think “they’re definitely behind him” and you manage to convince yourself there’ll be a concerted effort to carry that level of determination into the next game. Then 4 days later it’s Forest away and they simply don’t turn up. It’s so predictable and the same thing has been happening for years on repeat.

Now that the transition to being INEOS-led is finally underway we can hopefully look forward to having some serious people in charge again. Poaching one of the main heads at City could be seen as a coup of sorts, but such is my complete lack of faith the immediate thought was “I bet he’s a plant” – either that or he’ll be in prison in 6 months’ time if they’re found guilty of these 115 charges. I’m being facetious of course, but it would be classic modern day United if the incumbent CEO ended up in court defending the actions of his previous employer.

Given that splashing the cash on big money transfers is no longer an option, (such activity being one of the root causes of our current predicament), there’s little we can do except pray the changes Ratcliffe, Brailsford & Co put into practice have an immediate positive effect on the current staff. Despite haemorrhaging millions on players, the overall quality of the squad is still questionable. Senior pros aren’t performing or have a terrible attitude (more on Rashford in a bit), the few quality players we have are too old or injury prone, those possessing the right work-ethic aren’t good enough and the jury’s still out on a handful of recent arrivals.

I’ll be convinced by Omar Berrada if we manage to go a few months without hearing rumours of Wan Bissaka’s terms being extended or that United are considering handing Scott McTominay a new deal. When is the penny going to drop that keeping mediocre players under contract doesn’t suddenly pique the interest of potential buyers? We’ve been doing this for a decade now and I don’t recall the tactic working once. Mediocre is probably harsh as this pair are good players, they just aren’t good enough if we’re expecting to compete at the top level any time soon.

Dalot is another one who United consider a major asset despite his performances suggesting the exact opposite is the case. By all accounts he’s a good professional and he clearly tries his hardest, but are you kidding me? I’m left dumbfounded by the narrative that he’s developed over the last couple of years. He was a liability when he was shipped off to Milan on loan 4 years ago and he remains a liability now. The fact he’s found the net as opposed to Row Z on a couple of occasions recently is more a statistical anomaly than evidence of marked improvement. It’s embarrassing that the club’s social media promotes such nonsense, it’s like they’re trying to gaslight us.

The club’s financial position is so perilous that we don’t appear to be in the position to bring in our annual comedy loan signing this month. Despite losing Martial to injury and shipping that rat Sancho back to Dortmund, unless something dramatic happens at the death it looks like we’re relying on Hojlund and Rashford alone to provide goals for the rest of the season. If one or both get injured what’s the plan then? Recalling Hugill from Burton Albion would be an option (I can’t believe I’ve just typed those words) but whatever way you look at it, we’re desperately short of options.

Although he’ll always have an army of defenders on social media, I think most normal United fans have lost it with Rashford after his “performances” over the last few months. Watching an alleged senior pro and lifelong red strop around the pitch scowling whilst turning in a series of utterly abysmal displays has done me in. I’m not sure how he had the gall to make that yapping gesture after scoring against Spurs the other week. Like a number of his peers, it’s uncertain if he’s got a clue what’s going on with his life anymore.

How he’s turned from an excited young teenager absolutely buzzing to have scored on his PL debut to the brooding, entitled bellend we witness today encapsulates everything detestable about a growing number of modern footballers. The manner in which players so lauded and highly remunerated lose all perspective and basically start taking the piss out of their own public speaks volumes about their true character. In Rashford’s case it’s all the more embarrassing given the cringeworthy “humble kid with a heart of gold” schtick that’s pumped out by his PR team.

In the meantime, the player is out clubbing in “the biggest dive in Belfast” according to another contributor to the mag, before phoning in sick and missing training the next morning. Despite the club briefing journalists that “everything is fine” and the video footage was from a previous night (it wasn’t), the optics are pretty terrible here – just as they were following his comment on Instagram reacting to Sancho’s arrival at Dortmund. They can try and play down his antics all they like, but he’s been phoning it in all season and something is clearly not right with him.

The club is facing a bit of a conundrum now because whilst Rashford appears to have decided he doesn’t fancy Ten Hag, he remains one of their biggest commercial assets and is one of the few players who’d command a large fee if they were to leave. If United decide to dispense with the manager at the end of the season (which is entirely possible irrespective of Rashford’s feelings on the subject), I’m sure he’d feel placated and everything will settle. If Ten Hag is given another season, then it’s looking increasingly likely that the club will decide to cash in this summer. Fingers crossed they go with Option B.

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Deja vu

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United is a soap opera at the best of times, but this last month played out as if there’s a team of behind-the-scenes scriptwriters devising the scarcely credible stream of calamities occurring on an almost daily basis. It’s been absolutely relentless. So much so that you’d be forgiven for thinking the much vaunted “cultural reset” that occurred during ETH’s first year in charge was somewhat overstated. One might even go as far to suggest that it could be time for another.

Firstly (and predictably) Mason Greenwood got shunted off to Getafe once the realisation hit that Arnold & Co weren’t going to be able to re-integrate him into the squad without causing a major PR stink. Quite how it took an internal investigation lasting several months to reach this conclusion I’ve no idea, given it was patently obvious from the moment that video started circulating he would never play for the club again. Naturally in taking an excruciatingly long time to make the decision (not to mention performing a u-turn en-route) United managed (also predictably) to score a PR own goal anyway. Absolutely brilliant work all round lads, well done.

Greenwood’s new employers wasted no time in confirming how they would handle any potential fallout caused by their new acquisition. Now you might think given his notoriety, a carefully worded statement exuding calm and sensitivity might be in order. Nope, scrub that. Instead, their socials manager demonstrated the composure of a 15 year old boy fresh off a 48 hour Fortnite bender, amped up on Prime and Strawberry Elf Bars. “Our guy Mase” was heralded in a stream of training ground pics as they revelled in the attention and hoovered up new followers on twitter. Still, if a few thousand “Starboy” apologists have now switched allegiances to Getafe this could turn out to be a positive thing.

During the post-mortem that followed defeat at the Emirates, it was revealed that Jadon Sancho had been omitted from the squad following sub-par performances in training that week. It comes as no surprise to learn he isn’t cutting it during practice sessions given his underwhelming contribution to the vast majority of games he’s appeared in over the last 2 years. Indeed, such is the player’s complete lack of impact at United, Ten Hag’s interview was the first time it occurred to me that he hadn’t featured that day. Normally you’d expect a player to take a public dressing down on the chin and vow to improve. Unfortunately not, as nothing emitting from the confines of Carrington can be described as normal at present.

In his infinite wisdom, Sancho took to twitter to refute the allegations, claiming “I have been a scapegoat for a long time.” I’m not certain if this broadside was aimed solely at Ten Hag, given that he’s only the latest in a number of managers and coaches to question the player’s discipline and take umbrage at his timekeeping. One can only assume being granted a 3 month leave of absence last season to work on his fitness levels was a part of this scapegoating process as well? Poor misunderstood Jadon.

Given this occurred at the start of the international break, Sancho had ample opportunity to sort this out quietly but you figured something was amiss when he was pictured at some event in NYC a couple of days later. Nothing was resolved at a Carrington summit meeting scheduled for the following Monday, so the club then issued a statement announcing the player would be training alone for the foreseeable, “pending resolution of a squad discipline issue.” Cool. Quite honestly, I don’t require any further updates to this story as I’ve heard enough already. See you later, sunshine – don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

The next bombshell to drop concerned Antony and allegations of domestic abuse that first surfaced in South America a few months back. The story gained traction after a couple more women presented evidence to the media, leading to him being dropped from the Brazilian national squad. United responded by granting him an indefinite leave of absence, so in the space of 4 days we were now £150M-worth of highly erratic wingers down. Ten Hag must have felt some relief at his own baldness at this point, otherwise I’m certain he would’ve been pulling his hair out.

Away from all the off-the-pitch shenanigans, match days have provided little respite. Numerous mitigating factors have conspired against us so far. A full blown injury crisis, key players out of form and some refereeing shockers haven’t helped, but it’s not overly critical to state that it’s been a fairly abysmal start to the season. A fortuitous win over Wolves (masking the fact that we were outplayed for long stretches) and a stirring comeback after being 0-2 down to Forest after 4 minutes being the only highlights. Aside from that, it’s been grim viewing for the most part.

The point has been made before, but it’s pretty clear that prioritising lucrative exhibition games and racking up thousands of air miles ahead of proper pre-season training is terrible preparation for a fresh campaign. Every opponent faced so far has looked fit, fresh and hungry whereas United have struggled to maintain focus and intensity for 90 minutes. We start brightly enough, miss a couple of sitters, concede and then capitulate completely. It’s all becoming a bit predictable. Rinse and repeat.

I’m duty-bound to give a nod to the Glazers for their role in this mess, so shoutout to them too for ensuring new faces rock up at the last possible moment leaving no time to integrate them into the squad. The fact that a club of United’s size has to rely on loan signings at all is quite ridiculous, yet here we are again with Sergio Reguilon arriving on deadline day to go straight in as first choice left-back. Don’t even get me started on the options available at right-back, where you’ve got the equally abysmal Wan Bissaka and Dalot competing in their weekly “who’s looking the least shit to ensure selection” duel.

There’s little doubt that once we get some players back and things settle down, results will start to improve. Unfortunately, that’s going to take some time and until then the noise surrounding the club and pressure is only going to intensify. Plugging the omnipresent leaks and driving out malignant dressing room influences remains an ongoing process and there’s no quick fix. As I’m sure the manager is quite aware by now, this is just how it is at Manchester United. Clearly, the quickest way to end this current “crisis” is to start winning football matches again. Turning this around in the next few weeks is Ten Hag’s biggest test so far.

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